As tapas have spread around the world, so has interest grown in traveling to their source—and in hiring tapas guides. “A few years ago, almost no one did this, but now Spain has become a food mecca,” says Gabriella Ranelli de Aguirre, an American food guide who has lived in Spain for two decades and is based in San Sebastián, the Basque city in the northeast where tapas are called pintxos. A tapa can be anything that’s a small serving, but in Spain it’s always connected to a glass of wine or some other drink, like sherry or cider. (“Tapa” means “cover” in Spanish, although no one is sure exactly what was being covered—one theory is that the tapa protected a glass of sweet wine from flies.) These days tapas run far afield from the traditional croquettes, peppers, chorizo sausage and salted cod. Some foreign restaurants in Spain even feature tapas of their own cuisines. Many tapas bars offer big portions, called racións, as an alternative. – from WSJ