Trying a good paella in Andalucia is perfectly possible.
you may eat the best paella in an Andalucia restaurant, then head to Valencia and eat the worst in the world. It's not a matter of which region, but which place.
The difference is that there are more places in Valencia serving paellas and offering valencia cusine dishes such as Paella, Fideua, All i Pebre....

Don't get into any place offering 'Paellador' that's a kind of precooked paella.

zeppole: Valencia is not Cataluña. Have history and lenguage in common, as many places in spain. Paella have its origin in Valencia area. There are many good dishes and food from Cataluña and would be incorrect to say that they are from Valencia, so it's the opposite.


kommander18: telling us where in Andalucia could help to give you some recommendations. It's a big area with many cities. In big cities, restaurants that are called 'arrocerias' are specialiced in rice and probably serve very good paella.

Some relatives in Madrid took us to a restaurant called El Pato Mudo in the Hotel Diana (near Barajas sirport) to dine on Paella Valenciana. The so-called original Paella features mariscos & saffron rice. It was very good!

We also dined on Paella marinera in the Dining room of the Hotel Palas in Alicante (Comunitat de Valencia) and in one of the Restaurants at la Pedra in Vigo (Pontevedra, Galicia). The latter, prepared by an Argentinian Chef, was the best I ever tasted. The Chef (i.e., Maestro) apparently added a spice to give his Paella a little 'kick.'

These were all 'authentic' Paellas.

Three times, I got sick from eating tainted seafood in Spain: once in Malaga, another in Sevilla and most recently on a pilgrimage to Santiago. Be careful; and try to get your Doctor to write you a Prescription for Bacterial stomach infections before you go,

have never been disappointed with any paella that i 've had in la carihuela(a sea front neighborhood) on the western edge of Torremolinos

To NEDSIRELAND: please write some highlights on your pilgrimage to Santiago. The Pilgrimage is my Retirement Trip (can't wait!).

Sorry for hijacking the thread....

Anyway, where is kenderina and lincasanova or Josele when you need them...!!???

Hi,

Ken and lin can save their fingertips. I'm well familiar with all the arguments. To the extent that anybody wants to claim Valencians do not speak Catalan or -- my real point in this thread -- that paella is not a Catalan dish, I don't find the arguments grounded in fact.

Fine with me if anybody wants to respect the line drawn on maps, and they can call themselves whatever they choose.

Apparently people also want to define "authentic" pretty subjectively. How kommander18 ultimately wants to define it is OK with me too.

But if you ever go Rimini and end up eating pesto with hot peppers made by a Argentine chef, please don't start posting that you know a place in Rimini where they can eat authentic Italian pesto. The dish, which like paella, is named after the instrument used to prepare, has a tradition that incorporates only certain ingredients.

Please, please, Where is kenderina and lincasanova or Josele when you need them...!!???

Please save us from zeppole...! That hole in te Ozone layer must be a crater by now....!

By the way I did have a paella at La Barraca n Madrid which is known for their paella. It was good, that is if you never have paella at home.

I prefer a home made paella,

zeppole.. my only complaint is you should not call the women of valencia "catalanas". that is going a bit far.. just the type of provocation the pro-catalans have mastered.

i mean.. how could someone from the comunidad valenciana be called catalana unless she were born in cataluña? (which, according to history, is NOT the valencia region).

by the way, there are plenty of exiled valencianos ( or valencianas ) that are in barcelona/madrid and sevilla cooking up great paellas, i am sure.

let´s hope Kommander18 finds one of them!

k.18.. please keep us posted about your culinary discoveries.
as you can see we are quite interested in that.

This is increasingly going off the original question.
Komander, please tell us the locations you are interested in, and we'll suggest the best places for paella.
Paella is the name of the flat pan, and then "Arroz a la paella", but the dish is called paella everyplace.
The origin is Valencia, no doubt, as here is where the rice is grown. And the traditional is with vegetables.
Lina, I read that in old times it was added wild rodents from the Albufera marshes (though no longer), can you confirm?

Zeppole, have just had guests in my house from Valencia I can assure you there is a line between them and Catalonians. I have heard it from the horses’ mouth!

Josele, Wild rodents in Paella? You always have something interesting to add to discussions!! Hope all's well.

marsh rats, i believe, could still be used, if one wanted to do so, in a private home. i, fortunately, have never been offered that meat in a paella.

and i think the most traditional paella is what is called "paella valenciana" with chicken , rabbit, and some particular vegetables.
no chorizo.. no pork ribs, etc. etc. etc.

whatever you find, k18, i hope it is tasty whether it is true to the exact valencian recipe or not!

this is one dish that is very difficult to make turn out the same way everytime. you can have a good paella one day, and a horrible one the next. it is all in the cook´s hand and a bit of luck, too, i think of getting that rice exactly right. not too greasy, not too overcooked and waterlogged/soft (pasado).. it is a real art. which some places have perfected.

i'm getting hungry!

and, don´t forget Victor´s recommendation : don´t think of trying it at a place advertising "Paellador" !

Cova

Sorry I haven't gotten back to the gorup sooner, but thanks for all of the suggestions and clarifications. I definitely learned a lot through the threads and lvoed the passion behind some of the responses. Thanks again to all who responded.

nedsireland.. just noticed your post about hotel palas in alicante.
that must have been years ago!!!

my mother in law lived next door pratically. what a view from that front line towards the beach/port area.!

Beware of articles claiming what's authentic and what's not. Also beware of restaurants which claim to have authentic or "the best" paella.

"Authentic Paella" doesn't exist. While Valencia made it internationally famous, the Spanish paella is authentic depending on the region in which you eat it. Each region, each restaurant, and certainly each family recipe prepares it differently.

But you're right, most restaurants do simply open a bag of frozen seafood, thaw out the block of frozen broth, and VOILA, you've got paella and ready-to-serve in 20 minutes. The fact is, places which serve "FRESH" paella will require you to call ahead so they can have it ready for you upon your arrival. Why? Because it takes about about 2 hours to prepare - which includes 1 hour cooking time.

Another fact is, you - a non-Spaniards - aren't likely to notice the difference between an fresh paella and a ready-to-eat paella.

When most people in our world think of paella they envision a round flat plate of rice garnished with seafood. But the most famous paella, the Paella Valenciana, contains no seafood but rabbit and chicken.

If you choose an "Arrocería" - these places specialize in rice dishes - you're MORE likely to get a fresh paella. If you choose a restaurant with a sidewalk posterboard of several paellas then these are the frozen ones. Still, many "arrocerías" will still use frozen, prepared broth to quicken the service but it's still good.

There was an article in The Wall Street Journal a couple days ago entitled "Searching Spain for the Perfect Paella" (web: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1218...mod=Travel79_1 ). The author of the article claimed he found it near Alicante - but he didn't mentioned if he'd tested paellas throughout Spain or only 3 or four near his hotel so I'm highly skeptical.

It's interesting to me that to tourists the paella in Andalucía IS BEST known - and not Valencia. I guess Andalucía does a better job of marketing.

Saludos, MadridMan/GranadaMan/BarcelonaMan