Spanish street food has taken on a life of its own in Fife thanks to Alicia Aparicio and The Wee Tapas Box that has been hitting the streets since April 2020.
If you’ve been anywhere in Fife where there’s a street food market, you’ll likely have already come across The Wee Tapas Box.
Run by Alicia Aparicio, her street food offering came about as she wanted to take her Spanish cuisine to people who were unable to visit her takeaway on Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Road during lockdown.
But the idea was around before Covid-19 essentially shut down the hospitality industry, as Alicia had planned to make her business into a street food offering as early as 2019.
She said: “The business really started at the end of 2019, where I had a small gazebo in a market in Kirkcaldy selling my Spanish food.
“Then I started selling it from my house and that did really well, with people asking where my shop was and if they could come and pick some up.
“After seeing how interested people were for the Spanish cuisine, we decided to open a Spanish takeaway shop in Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Road called Los Buenos Amigos.
“When lockdown happened, we realised that there were many people who could not come to the store due to the restrictions. So, in April 2020, we decided to open The Wee Tapas Box so that we could go to people who couldn’t come to us, and people who had mobility restrictions and couldn’t come to the takeaway, could still get Spanish food.”
Spanish food
With tapas, paella, churros and pinchitos on the menu regularly, Alicia is delighted to bring her native cuisine to the markets and streets of Fife, with her paellas proving to be the biggest hit among customers.
She continued: “Our most popular dish is undoubtedly our paellas, although it is true that every so often we introduce new dishes and they become almost more popular than paella, such as calamari or churros with chocolate.
“Since the launch of The Wee Tapas Box we have realised the popularity among people to be able to eat Spanish food in the street. It’s only on some occasions that such food can be eaten in restaurants, which I think brings our customers this novelty factor.
“At the same time, I think the pleasure of being able to enjoy authentic Spanish food, as though they were in Spain, is what appeals, but they are able to enjoy it while walking through the streets of their beautiful towns or city at home.”
Mobile street food
As many food and drink businesses, and other areas of hospitality, were forced to close during the lockdown months, many turned to opening their own mobile street food vans, just like Alicia.
This has seen a surge in Scotland’s street food offering, which Alicia says she thinks is down to people wanting to get outside and looking for more variety.
She added: “I think that people are starting to like street food more due to the long time they have been in lockdown and inside their houses. I think this has caused people to want to go out and enjoy the outdoors and, of course, enjoy more in terms of a variety of street food.
“I think this is a very good thing since it means our business is contributing and becoming something important for street culinary tourism. It is also part of the economy of cities bringing people from other cities or countries to try street food that they cannot normally find at home.”
Los Buenos Amigos can be found on Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Road, with The Wee Tapas Box travelling to various markets, events and locations throughout Fife throughout the week.
Check their Facebook page to see where they’ll be next.
Map of street food vendors in Tayside and Fife