I've become a fan of the small plate.

If you're like me, and decided to take five years of French in middle school and high school rather than taking the much more practical Spanish, you probably would have had to look up tapas as well.  Thanks to Wikipedia, I now consider myself an expert in all things tapas - from the word origins to the evolution from Spanish cuisine to occasionally behind-the-times Columbia, SC.  Now, I'm sure you're reading this and wondering why in the world anyone would care about the history of tapas.  But see, this is a food blog, and while most of the time I'm pretty good at pretending to know more than I do, this was not one of those cases.  Plus some of the origins were kind of interesting.  For example (thanks Wikipedia!):

Another popular explanation says that the king Alfonso XIII stopped by a famous tavern in Cádiz (Andalusian city) where he ordered a cup of wine. The waiter covered the glass with a slice of cured ham before offering it to the king, to protect the wine from the beach sand, as Cádiz is a windy place. The king, after drinking the wine and eating the tapa, ordered another wine "with the cover."^[2]

Sounds to me like King Alfonso XIII just discovered that bar food is an excellent balance to wine.  To that, I have to say, "duh."  Bar food also goes well with beer.  Or $3 martinis.  Especially at Virtu Restaurant & Bar in Columbia.