In Yorkshire – at the Angel at Hetton – they have “Yapas”. We know, you can go too far and we’ve been less than enthusiastic about other contortions of the language in favour of God’s own country. They serve it in their bar rather than the main restaurant as a nod towards casual dining [a “brasserie” menu] and it’s never going to trouble proper tapas – or even come close. They’re more like little things to accompany your pint of local ale – olives, little spicy sausages, black pudding bon bons – that wouldn’t set you back much more than £20 if you ordered the lot. They serve as a prelude to some tasty and robust starters, mains and puddings that are all a bit chunkier than their relatives in the restaurant.

Now we’ve had tapas in more usual surroundings, most memorably in Barcelona where the presentation was beautiful and inventive. More recently we had a go with [had a shot at, if you’re in Scotland] Pintxos, at a little bar in Soller, Mallorca.

It is a gastronomic, cultural and artistic meeting point.

It was recommended to us and looked great but, with three small grandchildren in tow, we couldn’t get a table and if we had we’d have taken up half the restaurant. However, we had been told they provided a take-away service so, as we’re staying in a stunning villa, this seemed to be the way to go. The menu was long and tempting and the pintxos were arranged along the bar, so you help yourselves – or just see what they were if you couldn’t imagine them from the menu [we couldn’t]. So, on the advice of the staff we chose about eight per person, all savoury, and mostly fishy things. Now they’re very proud of their presentation – it’s half the story – so, following the handing over of a Eu50 note as a deposit, they plated all the pintxos up as if they were in the restaurant, ready to take away and enjoy. Beautiful. Incidentally, we collected fresh oranges each morning from the trees in the garden. One very useful tree even produced both oranges and lemons…

Fabulous Tapas and Pintxos Ca’n Pintxo

Oranges and lemons…