That's TAPAS, Not TOPLESS

Let's see... Continuing on the Spanish food tip, I went to Tia Pol last night. And I was blown away. There's tapas all over this town, and I've hit quite a bit of them. But this place, well, it takes top honors (at least thus far :).

It's a small little spot, long and narrow and brick-lined on one side. The bar's right up front and it's well stocked with some good wines (white and red, which I still find somewhat surprising when I go out). The sangria here is excellent: good fruit pieces and the wine that they start with isn't swill, so the end product is actually quite good. They add a bit of peach schnapps, which gives an enhanced fruity flavor to it. And a pitcher was $28, which isn't as murderous as it at first soujnds, since it's a pretty BIG pitcher.

The tapas selections look, at first, quite standard: calientes y frios, but upon closer inspection, you can tell someone's both been to Spain and has a very good palette. The 1st set we ordered consisted of:

• White asparagus with mayonnaise and mujol caviar. Very interesting taste combination. The asparagus was a little to limp for me but, then again, I'm mostly a raw vegetable person, so don't let that sway you from trying it. The taste was quite yummy.
• Fava bean paste and tomato on bread. My friend dug the shit out of this, but to me it was, well, fava bean paste, some grated cheese and tomato on a small slice of bread. Not that it was bad, it was, well, just.... fava beans.
• Pescado en adobo. By far the best of the tapas we tried. Shark bits fried lightly and adoboed just enough. They were gone almost before we could decide how great they were.
• Deviled eggs. The Spanish name for this was too long to remember, but it started out like this: huevos rellenos... Excellent, for deviled eggs. Nice bit of paprika here. Not too much nor too little.
• Lamb skewers. With so much other yummy stuff to try, I dunno why my friend ordered this, but he's weird like that. Nice little bits of fried lamby, though. Wouldn't order it again, but that's not because it was bad, but because there's so much better stuff to order.
• Jamon y queso Manchego sandwich. This thing was da bomb. The flavors of the manchego and ham blended perfectly and it all seemed to melt in your mouth in nicest way...
• Salted green peppers in a light olive oil, The surprise taste treat of the night. We got these on the house--it's good to get to know your servers, people!--and I was really impressed, as I'd never had this dish before. The green peppers were only slightly spicy--"they're sweet peppers" our server said as she put them down on the bar for us--and the salt and the olive oil contrasted in a very subtle way with the flavor of the peppers. An excellent dish and one I would recommend.

Actually, there isn't a dish we had or that I saw that I wouldn't recommend here. And that's saying something. We even went in for a dessert, but how can you not get a dessert when you eat tapas? Anywho, we got an almond torta and carmel with a small dollop of vanilla ice cream. Heavenly. The prefect cap to a great tapas experience. I highly recommend the place. 4.5 out of 5!