Menuology: Tiny Bites, With A Sprinkle Of Synonym

In the years since the tapas trend went global, local eateries of every ilk have gone mini, with menu sections devoted to small-plate fare. Italian restaurants in particular have embraced the trend with gusto; trouble is, you almost need a foreign-language dictionary to sort out their efforts.

Our cursory tour of area Italian eateries revealed no fewer than 10 different names for tapas-style dishes, from the “hot bites” at Vlora to the antipasti at Nebo, to the piattini ("small plates") at, fittingly, Piattini. At Via Matta and Brookline’s La Morra, they’re called cicchetti, a common term in Venice for bar snacks (the name comes from the Italian word meaning "shot" or "nip"), and at Pomodoro, they're simply "appetizers." Then there’s Bin 26's stuzzicare l'appetito ("to whet the appetite") menu, along with Sage’s related stuzzi, not to mention the sfizi ("whimsy") samplers at Dante and Belmont's new Il Casale. Add in Sagra’s fritture ("fried foods") and the "light bites" at Salem's 62 on Wharf, and you have a veritable vernacular pileup.

"In Italy, words are tweaked slightly from region to region," says Dante de Magistris of Dante and Il Casale. "My friend Tony Susi at Sage calls them stuzzi because that's what they called it where his father grew up in Abruzzi. My family uses sfizi."

Our best advice for ordering Italian bites, whatever they're called: Stick to the cheap stuff at the top of the menu. And who knows? If the trend continues, maybe a single term will eventually emerge victorious. "Personally, I hope sfizi will be used universally," de Magistris adds. "It's just so much more fun to say."