My first night in Spain, I did a lot of walking. After a while, I was ready for a drink. I have heard of a popular drink here called “Tinto de Verano” which is red wine mixed with lemonade or a lemon flavored soda water. It is similar to a sangria but can be made a lot quicker. (Proper sangria needs to sit for a long time before being served where as tinto de verano can be made right there on the spot).
Going into this small restaurant/bar, I ordered this one drink and that is all. At this moment, I also had my first tapas experience. I am still learning what tapas are but what I know so far is that you can either go out for tapas ( and make an evening out of it ) or sometimes you get free tapas when ordering a drink ( like I did here ). It just depends on the place, I think?
So this night, I had ONLY order this drink but I was given free tapas/food. One of these tapas turned out to be a very famous dish in Spain called a “tortilla” and the other was some sort of empanada type dish.
Left to right: empanada type dish, spanish tortilla and tinto de verano.
A “tortilla” here in Spain is VERY different than what we know it to be in the US. A tortilla here is made simply of 3 ingredients: potatoes, eggs and onions. And in most cases they want the eggs to be a little runny. ( And for me, not being a huge eggs person at all – that sounded absolutely horrible!). But I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed this tortilla! It wasn’t at all what I expected and it was really delicious.
After enjoying my tinto de verano and tapas I asked for my check and was shocked at how cheap this was. I was charged less than 2€ for all this. What a deal! Overall, it was a great experience with great food.
Tinto de Verano: 
Tortilla: