Paella? What In Heavens Name Is That?

I've just been given an assignment to do about something called paella and for the life of me I can honestly say that I've never even heard of such a word! Ok, ok, I know I'm not the brightest spark around town. So, I asked wifey what it was and she told me it was some kind of rise dish mixed with all kinds of stuff like vegetables, meat and seafood. Man, I love food and I don't even know what paella is, dumb right?

So, I went and did a little more research online about it on Wikipedia. I was determined to know everything there was to know about this paella dish. I discovered that the name paella is the word for frying pan in Valencian and is traditionally eaten on Sundays. There is this story about how the Moorish kings' servants created some rice dishes by mixing all the leftovers from all the royal banquets in large pots to bring home or so the story goes.

Paella is normally cooked in a paella pan which is basically a large, shallow, flat pan. The traditional paella has a crispy, caramelized and toasted bottom that is considered a delicacy. Man, all this talk abut food sure is making me mighty hungry and this paella thingy sure sounds good. I wonder where I can find some place making paella over here so I can go give it an try. Anyone how happens to know a good place to try this dish out, let me know, k? :D

6 weird comments:

WaterLearner said...

Yo Spiff,

It surprises me that you could write so much about a dish that you know absolutely nothing about at the beginning.

:-)

Anonymous said...

Waterlearner - It surprised the hell out of me too ... LOL!

Black_Mamba said...

Paella is one of my fave dishes. Very scrumptious if you ask me ;)

Anonymous said...

Black Mamba - Cool, you've actually eaten it. Man, I really need to a place selling it soon ... LOL!

Shemah said...

I love paella too!! I think the best it still seafood paella.. Go to any restaurants that serve spanish food, if you wanna give it a try.

It's somewhat similar to rissoto if you ask me.. but it's cooked differently with different spices. So what's the same about it? The way it looks! LOL! Oh well, gotta try to know.. :D

Anonymous said...

Shemah - thanks for the tip. Now if only I could find a Spanish restaurant in my neighbourhood! LOL!

I'm making it a quest of mine to try this paella thingy soon ...