An app by any other name…

During the holiday season, the frequency of eating increases. It’s a law of nature. After much study (done unselfishly with only you in mind, of course…), I have come to the conclusion that multiple stops under the guise of “oh, let’s stop and grab a drink” can be managed by sticking to small plates. Or tapas. Well, OK, let’s call them what they really are: appetizers.

Everybody knows that appetizers don’t count toward the amount of food you eat in a restaurant. After all, they’re “appetizers,” not really food. That being said, the app lineup here in the Cape Region is exceptional. Here are a few of my favorites.

The villagers would surely show up at the door with pitchforks and torches if Blackwall Hitch were to remove the Shrimp Blackwall from the appetizer menu. White wine blends with spiced butter, garlic and scallions. Truth be told, the shrimp are just a way to get this sauce into your mouth.

Just next door at Indigo Indian Restaurant, I end up taking half my main course home because I can’t stop gnawing on the naan. Toasted on the sides of the red-hot tandoor oven, this homage to breads everywhere is best when stuffed with roasted onion or topped with coarsely chopped garlic.

I remember when Touch of Italy first introduced the Robiola Ravioli. Corporate Chef Ciro Verdi wanted to show it off and I was lucky enough to be there. A dollop of creamy Robiola cheese is the surprise inside a warm, buttery ravioli. Combined with mushrooms, it is the ultimate bite. Be careful, though … you might want to get three orders, thus defeating the entire point of this article.

The Italian theme continues at Lupo Italian Kitchen. The arancini are warm and cheesy on the inside and delicately crisp on the outside. The meatballs are savory and tender, crowned with paper-thin slices of sharp pecorino.  Some of the best calamari around is at Bluecoast in Bethany Beach: light, with a slight tang of sea salt, and served simply with lemon and marinara.

Bethany Blues’ Pigs on the Wing are so popular that they hold an annual competition to see how many can actually be consumed in the shortest amount of time. These trimmed riblets come slathered in a spicy buffalo sauce along with the requisite blue cheese, crunchy carrots and celery.

It’s a toss-up for best appetizer at Yolanda Pineda’s Mariachi restaurant: I like to alternate between the queso fundido (house-made chorizo encased in a sea of melted queso) and her handcrafted pupusas with that wonderfully spicy curtido. Across the street at Zogg’s, don’t miss the fried alligator (tastes like chicken, really) and the coconut shrimp. Just west of there at Confucius, start off your made-to-order Chinese dinner with some of the best fried rice around. I sometimes pair that with the spicy cold noodles and make it a main course. A couple of blocks east, wings take center stage at Shorebreak Lodge in the form of the signature Thai chili wings. While you’re there, wrap your tentacles around the best grilled octopus I’ve ever had.

Raw bar offerings are perfectly acceptable as an appetizer, and it’s a lucky bottle of Tabasco that gets to drizzle the chilled oysters at Big Fish Grill, Fins Fish House or Henlopen City Oyster House. They all do a good job of dishin’ up a variety of happy bivalves for your slurping pleasure. At Fork & Flask in Shore Plaza, the baked Oysters Asiago has been a mainstay for years, dressed up with fennel, mushrooms and spinach.

You will be surprised at how good the salads are at Pat’s Family Pizzeria in Lewes. Though it’s a pizza place, starting out with one of the cool and crunchy salads negates all the calories that follow. Moving to the east (the Middle East, to be exact), you can expand your horizons at Semra’s Mediterranean Grill with house-made babaghanouj. Don’t let the name scare you: Think hummus, but with oven-roasted eggplant in place of the garbanzo beans. Tahini (sesame seed butter), lemon, garlic and Semra’s secret spices make it the perfect dip to shovel into your mouth with a warm pita triangle.

For only ten bucks, the Taco Teaser at Dos Locos arrives as a dozen mini tacos of chicken and beef. As you might expect, Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats couldn’t be happy with just a bowl of mac ‘n’ cheese. They had to poke a couple of crispy buffalo wings in there to enhance the drama of it all. And it works.

The Pines on Baltimore Avenue reinvents the arancini by adding wild mushrooms. Another sleeper on the little bites menu is the Loaded Fries. With a polite nod to the poutine lovers north of us, this dish comes with light-as-air onion straws and peppers. Warm chicken gravy melts the cheese curds as you nibble yourself into nirvana.

Gadzooks! I haven’t even scratched the surface, and I’m already out of ink! So in a word, don’t skip the apps! Remember: They’re what today’s “small plates,” “tastings” and “tapas” used to be before the humble appetizer got trendy.