Where to eat paella in Valencia, some addresses to eat well and low cost in Spain. The best Valencian paella you can find at low cost prices in Valencia.
Where to eat the best Paella in Valencia?
This is the question which I have heard several times and which I believe will always continue to address me. Why paella is simple was born in Valencia, the Spanish city where from almost three years I have decided to live.
But before talking about the restaurants to eat this enchanting Spanish or rather Valencian dish, I would like to focus on the meaning and the history area of Paella itself. To find out more about this dish, I asked a friend of mine, who has lived in Valencia since he was a child and since Valencia was not the city we know, a modern, organized, very liveable and very beautiful city as it is now. but when Valencia was still a small pueblo (town) where i tourists were very few and in any case they passed by chance and where projects like that of Calatrava “La ciudad de las artes y las ciencias” were unimaginable.
Just this friend of mine told me that Paella as often happens comes from peasant culture. The farmers who in Valencia (Albufera) still produce one of the quality of rice best in the world, they put together the products that their land offered, namely rice, the vegetables, rabbit meat (the surroundings of Valencia are still full of wild rabbits today), chicken meat and various spices (the saffron is the most important element).
The first thing I want to point out is therefore the fact that the Paella Valenciana original it is not mixed (mixed in Castellano). So when you are in Valencia and they offer you Paella mixta they are offering you a dish that no Valencian DOC would never ask, so here you are debunked the first myth.
Over time, the Paella has had many variations but I repeat the paella or eat it of meat (Valencian) or fish (Paella de Marisco) not mixed which is tourist stuff. The main variants of paella are:
Paella Valenciana (chicken, vegetables and rabbit, and for those who like it, I recommend with the addition of caracoles, that is snails).
Paella from Marisco (vegetables and fish) also called arroz a banda.
All the others paellas are not to be considered as such but to be considered as Rice dishes namely dishes with rice (not risotto as we understand it). Of these dishes with rice the main ones are:
Arroz a banda (see paella de marsico)
Rice with lobster (lobster rice and shrimp and vegetables)
Arroz de Senyoret of Alicante origin (it is like marisco paella but all seafood is shelled, I recommend the marisco one has more flavor)
Arroz caldoso de marisco or bogavantes (always rice with various fish or with lobster and prawns but not dry like paella but broth from which the word caldoso, in fact hot in Spanish means broth).
black rice (rice made with cuttlefish ink)
Another important thing, the word Paella it simply derives from the padella in which this dish is prepared which is called precisely paella. There are paellas of all sizes and every good Valencian has in their homes (when this is possible) a Paellero a space where to cook and cook paella if possible wood (the best paellas are cooked with wood and not with gas).
Addresses for eating Paella in Valencia
My friend Sebastian who knows about paella: in my house and cooked by me, but among the restaurants here are my recommendations.
Roberto's house in the calle Maestro Gonzalvo
La Marcelina en la Playa de la Malvarrosa (Paseo de Neptuno, 8) by the sea
The Sucursal near the IVAM museum
Casa Salvador en Cullera (located outside Valencia but the place is as charming as its paella) La Pepika Beach of the Malvarrosa (but perhaps now too touristy so try the others first ..) (Av.Mediterraneo N.115, Puerto Sagunto).
