Food Stuff

Restaurants often try to outdo one another with fancy dishes and presentation. Yet some of the most delicious foods are simple, such as the pimientos de Padrón at . The peppers, named after a town in Galicia, are emerging as one of the most popular tapas in Spain. At Tapa the World, the chefs briefly sauté the bite-size peppers in hot olive oil until they’re blistered and then sprinkle them with coarse salt. That’s it. Just pick up by the stem and bite. Most of the pale green peppers are mild, but a few deliver a kick, and they pair up nicely with a glass of Spanish wine. Tapa the World gets the peppers from tiny Happy Quail Farms of East Palo Alto (www.happyquailfarms.com), the only place in the nation growing them. There might be fancier ways to dress up these peppers, but why mess with simple perfection? 2115 J Street, (916) 442-4353, (www.tapatheworld.com).