At Tango, tapas aren't so much traditional as they are Seattle-style riffs on the theme. The duck confit in the Pato del Oriente at left, for instance, takes a decidedly Asian turn with its ginger-melon vinaigrette. Likewise with the Gambas Picantes, where a passion fruit-star anise broth and a cucumber-melon salad team up with tiger prawns.

"I don't know," I said, "but let me have another bite of that duck."

I would have waxed philosophical about the whole seasonal-regional thing, and the Seattleification that happens when local cooks get ahold of foods like tapas from other parts of the world, but I couldn't manage more than a few syllables. We were eating at Tango Tapas Restaurant and Lounge at the corner of Pike Street and Boren, and I couldn't wait to get another forkful of that "Pato del Oriente," a medley of duck confit in a ginger-melon vinaigrette with seasonal cress.

"I love this kind of thing," I murmured. If I hadn't been so involved with the food, I might have speculated that Seattle cooks are not content with duplicating traditional dishes from other parts of the world. Why try to duplicate someone else's traditional cuisine? At best you have a good imitation. Instead, we cook what is produced here and use techniques borrowed from other cultures to inform what we do.

"Thorns of the Sea" Makes 15 bite-size servings

15 large mussels 15 medium shrimp Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 4 tablespoons flour 1 egg, lightly beaten 1/2 cup breadcrumbs Olive oil for frying 1. Wash the mussels under running water and pull off their beards. In a small saucepan over high heat, cook the mussels in half a cup of water for 6 to 8 minutes, or until they pop open. Cool the mussels and pull them out of their shells. 2. Peel the shrimp and pull off the heads if necessary. 3. Put one mussel and one shrimp on each of 15 bamboo skewers; keep the shellfish at one end of the skewers so the other will make a handle. Season the shellfish with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Using the bamboo skewers as handles, roll the seafood in flour and shake off the excess. Next, dip the seafood in the beaten egg, and roll in breadcrumbs. The tapas may be prepared ahead up to this point and kept refrigerated for an hour or two. 4. In a small frying pan pour the olive oil to 3 inches deep, then heat until it registers 375 degrees, or until a cube of bread dropped into the oil floats immediately to the surface and turns golden in about 1 minute. Fry the skewers three or four at a time in hot olive oil and serve hot. - Adapted from "Las Clasicas Tapas," by Rafael de Haro. Print friendly version.

"It's not tapas," he said, waving his fork between bites. "It's not even Spanish."

"What about these shrimp?" I asked. "Are these Spanish?" In fact, the Gambas Picantes, sautéed tiger prawns with passion fruit and star anise broth and a cucumber melon salad, were decidedly Asian, but I noticed that we were eating them as fast as we could. "They're more like something you would see at one of Tom Douglas' restaurants," I admitted. "But we are, after all in Seattle."

In Spain, tapas are small, flavorful, bite-sized foods served with drinks, almost like the hors d'oeuvres that American hosts pass with cocktails. But the dishes that constitute tapas in Seattle these days are more like first courses at a sit-down dinner. Tango, the brainchild of Seattle "restauranteuse" Danielle Philippa, is an offshoot of her popular Eastlake restaurant Bandoleone, which also features a tapas-inspired menu. Tango actually promotes itself as pan-Latin, not Spanish, and the definition of tapas is broadened to include all sorts of what my friend would call "Seattle food." Our waiter explained that the chef, Bryce Lamb, had taken some liberties. "We make them a little bigger," he said. "We usually recommend that two people try three or four plates and share everything."

All priced between $6.50 and $16.50, these plates were definitely bigger than tapas. "But," as I said to my dinner companion, "Who cares? They're really good." By this time, we had polished off the special — roasted red pimiento peppers filled with tuna tartare — and were plowing through Moroccan-spiced chicken in phyllo, with preserved lemon and oil-cured olives. By the time we dug into pastry chef Bennie Sata's "El Diablo," a dense slab of truffle-textured chocolate marquis resting on a cloud of something I'd call house-made marshmallow cream, any concerns about what constitutes an authentic tapa were stuffed away.

For the past few years, tapas in various sizes and guises have been popping up all over Seattle from La Bodega in the Wallingford Center to Harvest Vine in Madison Park. Harvest Vine's Joseph Jimenez de Jimenez hails from San Sebastian in Spain, and his tapas are widely acknowledged as some of the most authentic in the city. It could easily be argued that his are the standard by which others are measured. But as tapas become more integrated into the Seattle food scene, they become less about authenticity and, judging by the offerings I've seen lately, more about diversity.

Crab Toasts Makes 15 very small, open-faced sandwiches

4 ounces fresh crabmeat 2 tablespoons finely chopped pickle 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion 1 hard-boiled egg, finely chopped 3 tablespoons mayonnaise Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste 4 or 5 slices fresh white bread 2 tablespoons butter 1. In a small bowl, mix the crabmeat with the pickle, onion, hard-boiled egg and mayonnaise. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 2. Use a small wineglass to cut 15 2/3-inch rounds from the sliced bread; butter the slices and toast them in a frying pan over medium heat until golden brown. 3. Top each toast-round with a spoonful of the crab mixture and serve. -Adapted from a recipe for Crab Tartlets in "Tapas, the Little Dishes of Spain," by Penelope Casas. Print friendly version.

At Andaluca, the swank little restaurant in the Mayflower Park Hotel, chef Wayne Johnson has been doing various small plates for years. In fact, even before Johnson came on board, Andaluca's Spanish-nuanced menu, developed by consulting chef Kathy Casey, was built around variations on a tapas theme. But the concept was never as much about being true to any tradition as it was about presenting lots of interesting foods that were fun to eat. The "Small Plates and Shareables" section of Johnson's menu includes more than a dozen selections ranging from chevre-stuffed dates to crisp-crust duck cakes.

A few nights after our trip to Tango, my friend and I were at Café Campagne, sampling some "petite plats," billed as "Provençale tapas." There, Chef Daisley Gordon offers three of these small plates nightly. Sold separately for $5 a pop, and closer in scale to traditional Spanish tapas, they provide a light alternative to the relatively large first courses. That night, the choices included slices from a smooth, foie gras-studded terrine of duck liver with a sparkling stripe of aspic, a rustic lamb shish kebab in red pepper coulis, or a small piece of grilled halibut with mushrooms.

If things keep going the way they are in restaurants, it won't be long until local cooks start serving tapas at home. In fact, cooks in the know have been doing it for some time. "Tapas, the Little Dishes of Spain," by Penelope Casas has been a seller in local bookstores for more than a decade. Another book, "Las Clasicas Tapas," by Rafael de Haro, is something I found on a visit to Jimenez de Jimenez's hometown. Armed with it and my restaurant-kitchen Spanish, I've managed to produce some pretty tasty tapas. If you're ready to try your hand, here are a couple of recipes to get you started.

Greg Atkinson is executive chef at Canlis restaurant. Barry Wong is a staff photographer for Pacific Northwest magazine.