It seems some of Bermuda's restaurants are getting hip to the Spanish tapa trend -- serving bite size portions of delectable dishes that can range anywhere from a mini meal to some nuts or olives.

A tapa is a small portion of food which you receive when you drink. To give the customers tapas is a universal Spanish custom throughout Spain.

Locally, the Chancery Wine Bar began adding tapas to their bar menu earlier this month. And according the Chef Olivier Ramos they are quite a hit.

Chef Ramos, who has been working at the restaurant/bar for three months hails from Marseille, France specialising in French cooking. However, he also is the creator of the Spanish tapa menu which consists of an assortment of tasty tidbits.

He said: "Tapas have added a sort of sophistication to happy hour. It enables a person to spend all his time at the bar and get something small to eat.'' According to one Spanish tour writer one of the greatest pleasures of being in Spain is to go out with your friends for tapas. "It represents a very healthy way of drinking because as you drink you eat.

"It is normal, in Spain, to only stay in each tapas bar for one or two drinks so you may visit a whole series of bars during an evening. In some tapas bars you can choose which tapa to have whereas in other bars they have a set list of tapas which you get according to which round of tapas you are on.'' The definition of the word "tapa'' means lid, cover, top, cap, etc. Many people have said that the word tapa originated because the glasses were physically covered by a small plate of food or a piece of food.

Another more believable explanation is that the word "tapa'' was used because it "covers'' the appetite.

Chef Ramos said tapas have become popular around the world because they are a "new wave of fast cuisine. You get more variety dishes and they do not take long to make so people enjoy it.'' From the tapa menu at the Chancery Wine Bar patrons can order gazbacho, crostini with goat cheese, calamari marinated, shrimps ceviche, tuna carpaccio with shallots, capers and cilantro, chicken wings, marinated herring with white wine, onions, parsley and potato salad and spicy guacamole with jalapenos.

"We serve tapas until closing time. Sometimes your not too hungry after work and having tapas enables you to have something small and tasty,'' Chef Ramos said.

He added: "People who come to the bar have really started to enjoy them, a lot of people are ordering them now to accompany their drinks. They are most popular between 7.30 p.m. and 9 p.m. because that is when most people are enjoying a drink and lots of conversation before going downstairs to the restaurant.'' Chef Ramos also said the Chancery Wine Bar will soon offer a larger selection of tapas and they will also start offering them earlier and stopping them later if the popularity continues.

According to Internet information on tapas you can "walk into a Spanish tapas bar worthy of its name and the first thing that hits you is the variety: pickles on cocktail sticks, cheeses and hams, homely omelettes, baby earthenware casseroles with sizzling hot dishes and elegant mayonnaise topped mouthfuls. "It's the chance to dip into so many tastes, as well as the visual spread of tapas that make them universally appealing.

"But behind the apparently bewildering variety are certain clear principals.

Originally a mouthful of food included in the bar price of wine or beer, a tapa is designed to accompany drink and good conversation.

"Or as a journalist put in one Spanish paper last year `The tapa, invented in an age less obsessed with productivity, is a trick for spinning out your drinks without getting drunk''.

"And whether thirst provoking or absorbent, they should be easy to eat so they don't interrupt the flow of conversation.'' Madrid is probably the best know tapa destination but the tradition is observed in many parts especially in the southern half of the country.

"There are two approaches to tapas: one is a freebie, a simple snack which comes with the price of your drink; the second is a side-order of snacking material purchased to accompany a glass of wine.

Photos by Tony Cordeiro TAPAS TREND -- Bermuda is getting hip with the seemingly world-wide trend of having Spanish style tapas, which are small portion meals which accompany your favourite drinks. Chef Olivier Ramos of the Chancery Wine Bar shows off a few of his tapas that that are getting served in the bar area of the restaurant.

TASTE OF TAPAS -- Chef Olivier Ramos has created several tasty tapas dishes.

Pictured are crostinne with goat cheese and tuna carpaccio with shallots, capers and cilantro.