Gazpacho comes in a martini glass at Taperia Entrebares in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain. Taperia Entrebares offers a variety of tapas dishes. (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
Gazpacho comes in a martini glass at Taperia Entrebares in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain. Taperia Entrebares offers a variety of tapas dishes. (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
Chicken strips with ginger are one of the tapas options at Taperia Entrebares in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain. The restaurant also offers wines from nearby Cadiz. (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
One of the offerings at Taperia Entrebares are croquettes made from four cheeses. The restaurant is located in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain. (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
The lamb miniburger comes with thin-cut french fries at Taperia Entrebares in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain. (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
Pork flavored with Pedro Ximenez wine comes with potato at Taperia Entrebares in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain. Pedro Ximenez is a variety of grape that comes from Spain. (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
Guests sit in front of Taperia Entrebares in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain.The restaurant is located in a residential area of the city's westside. (Adam L. Mathis/Stars and Stripes)
It can be intimidating to dine in a foreign country.
New spices or foods prepared and presented in strange ways can make a traveler wary about plunking down good money for a meal that might stay on the plate on which it was presented.
But for those unfamiliar with Spanish food, Taperia Entrebares makes dining easy.
Located in a residential area on the western side of El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain, Taperia Entrebares is off the typical tourist trails but strives to accommodate the foreign guest. The menu is available in English, and if the waitress had difficulty understanding me, she called someone from the back to help.
But more helpful still was the restaurant’s extensive tapas menu. The Spanish finger food is more than just an appetizer; some people create a full meal by ordering several different items. This has the benefit of allowing the cautious diner to balance exotic dishes against the safe and familiar.
At the top of my safe list was the pork tapas. Taperia Entrebares offers strips of pork flavored with famous Pedro Ximenez wine, which gave the tender meat a hint of sweetness. My wife ordered chicken strips with ginger, a simple dish that yielded few surprises for fans of fried food. The more aggressively spiced lamb mini-burger was also good.
We took a chance with the gazpacho. Chilled to a gelatinous state, the black olive and goat cheese gazpacho was salty, pungent and, as my wife put it, unlike “anything I’ve ever had before.” But our disappointment was part of the charm of traveling.
Taperia Entrebares’ tapas menu allows you to return to safety after you’ve gone out on a limb.
Taperia EntrebaresAddress: Calle Viveros 12 Centro. Comercial Vistahermosa, 11500 El Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz, Spain
Times: Noon to 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. to midnight Thursdays and Saturdays; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays
Costs: Tapas costs 3-4 euros (about $3.30-$4.40)
Attire: Casual
Menu: In English
Phone: (+34) (629) 65 32 18
