Laurence Dollimore
SPAIN is asking UNESCO to grant its world-famous tapas a distinction of ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’.
President of Spain’s Royal Academy of Gastronomy, Rafael Anson, has reportedly already spoken to UNESCO, who are said to be ‘looking into it’.
The Ministry of Culture is expected to make a formal presentation.
“Tapas are the very model of food,”said Rafael,”Pizza in itself is not intangible, but the concept of the Mediterranean diet, for example, is.”
“Tapas, too, are a way of eating,” he added.
“The project is very advanced. The Ministry of Culture will make the formal presentation but I have spoken to Unesco and they are already looking into it.”
The defininition of ‘items with cultural heritage’ was once limited to monuments and collections of objects, but it has now evolved to include flamenco, the whistled languae on La Gomera island, the castells and the human towers that form during festivals in Catalonia.
Tapas is not the first food to request UNESCO recognition either.
Italy will find out if its Neapolitan pizza is worthy of Intangible Cultural Heritage protection next year.
Families are out of work and hungry all over Spain, and the Government, along with the ministry of Culture of this country are spending time and cash with the aim of getting ‘Tapas’ a world heritage status. This speaks volumes about the priorities and logic inherent in the Spanish Government.
Let’s call ‘Tapas’ what it is, appetizers. Tapas is the Spanish version of sausage rolls, mozzarella sticks, pickled onions and little blocks of cheese on toothpicks, scotch eggs, mini quiches etc etc.
I’m sorry Spain, your country barely has a functioning government, you are broke, your police force are inept, and not one person from this country understands the proper use and function of a roundabouts or indicators, and you most certainly did not invent ‘Tappetizers’.
Should have run this story for the April 1st joke.