Paella

• 1. Introduction

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  Paella, the rice dish of the Valencian Community in Spain, once reached a scale that is hard to picture. On the 8th of March 1992, the Valencia restaurateur Juan Galbis made one that he says fed about 100,000 people. That 1992 effort is listed in Guinness World Records. Galbis later claimed an even larger one, cooked on the 2nd of October 2001, which his former website said fed about 110,000. Enormous pans like these are a habit at festivals, political campaigns and protests across the region. Yet the dish began as a working lunch among farm laborers. How did a meal of rice and snails become an identifying symbol of a whole community? Why do Valencians insist that only certain recipes deserve the name? And what happens when a famous chef from abroad cooks something different and still calls it paella?

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• 2. Pan and Name

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  In Catalan and in the Valencian language, the word paella means frying pan. Valencian speakers use it for every pan in the kitchen, including the wide, shallow, two-handled steel one used for the famous dish. Elsewhere in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries, people often say paellera for the pan and keep paella for the rice cooked in it. Both words are correct for the pan.

  The etymologist Joan Coromines traced the word back through Old French, where paelle meant frying pan, to the Latin patella. He argued that otherwise the Catalan form would be padella, because dropping a d between two vowels is not typical of Old Catalan. The same Latin root sits behind French poêle, Italian padella and Old Spanish padilla. It also links to paila, a word for metal and clay cookware used across Latin America for both cooking and serving.

  A rival story says the name comes from the Arabic baqiyya, or its plurals baqayā, meaning leftovers. Supporters point to an 8th-century custom in which servants of the Moorish kings carried home the rice, chicken and vegetables their masters had left. The weak point is timing, since the word paella is not recorded until six centuries after James I conquered Moorish Valencia. A Spanish newspaper in 1840 was the first to use the word for the recipe instead of the pan, according to the food historian Lynne Olver.

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• 3. Rice Farmers of the Albufera

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  Rice growing began in Al-Andalus around the 10th century, introduced by Muslims. Families in the eastern Iberian Peninsula cooked casseroles of rice, fish and spices for gatherings and religious feasts, and the habit of eating rice took hold. By the 15th century it was a staple.

  One likely theory places the invention of paella with rice farmers around the Albufera de València in that same century. Working in the paddies, they cooked a single pot from whatever the surrounding fields offered. That meant rice, snails, aquatic birds, green beans and water drawn from the lagoon itself.

  Religion shaped the recipe too. Cooks learned to pair rice with vegetables, beans and dry cod, which made an acceptable Lenten meal. Along the Mediterranean coast, rice was eaten mostly with fish. Whatever its ancient roots, the modern form of the dish is traced to the mid-19th century in the rural area beside the lagoon.

  The food historian Lourdes March says the dish "symbolizes the union and heritage of two important cultures, the Roman, which gives us the utensil and the Arab which brought us the basic food of humanity for centuries: rice."

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• 4. The Valencian Original

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  Paella valenciana is the version Valencians treat as the original. Its list is rice, olive oil, rabbit, chicken, duck, snails, saffron or a substitute, tomato, flat green beans called ferradura, lima beans, salt and water. Some cooks add whole rosemary branches, and artichoke hearts and stems appear in season. Saffron gives the yellow color, though turmeric, paprika, calendula or artificial colorants can stand in. Most cooks choose bomba rice, while a cultivar called senia is also used around Valencia.

  In the 18th century, Valencians cooked rice outdoors in pots called calderos, in their orchards near the Albufera. Water vole meat was a main ingredient of early paellas, alongside eel and butter beans. The novelist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez described the local custom of eating water voles in a realistic novel from 1902 about fishermen and peasants near the lake.

  Rising living standards in late 19th-century Spain brought country outings and gatherings. The ingredients shifted to rabbit, chicken, duck and sometimes snails. A typical list of that era included short-grain white rice, navy beans, great northern beans, runner beans, tomatoes, sweet paprika, garlic and fresh rosemary. Poorer Valencians sometimes made do with snails as their only meat.

  Many Valencians hold that nothing beyond this list belongs in the pot, and that fish and shellfish are "absolutely out of the question." One more rule concerns rosemary, which should be left out when the snails in the pan have been eating rosemary themselves.

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• 5. Beyond Valencia

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  Along the Mediterranean coast, Valencian fishermen swapped meat and beans for seafood, served in the shell. That became paella de marisco, which drops the beans and green vegetables. Spaniards living outside Valencia blended land meat and seafood into paella mixta, which also takes vegetables and sometimes beans. It is sometimes called preparación barroca, meaning baroque preparation, for its variety and showy finish.

  In 1959, Ernest Hemingway wrote about paella after a visit to Valencia, and that helped carry the dish around the world. As other cultures took it up, recipes grew from simple to elaborate, with seafood, meat, sausage, vegetables and many seasonings. Some restaurants outside Valencia sell the mixed version as paella valenciana. Valencians reply that only the two original Valencian recipes are authentic.

  In the Philippines, arroz a la valenciana is regarded as the local version of paella. It uses glutinous rice and otherwise keeps the same ingredients, with chicken and longganisa versions. Another Filipino relative, bringhe, descends from biryani but merged with paella during the colonial period, using glutinous rice, turmeric and coconut milk. A third, paelya, is also spelled paella but is pronounced without the ll sound.

  The family extends further. Latin American cooks make arroz con gandules, arroz con pollo and locrio, a Dominican descendant. Portugal has arroz de marisco, and Louisiana has jambalaya, shaped by paella and by the French jambalaia of Provence. Close to home, Valencians also cook fideuà, a noodle dish made in a paella pan and sometimes served with allioli sauce.

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• 6. Arroz con Cosas

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  Valencians have a pointed phrase for rice dishes that wander too far from the recipe: arroz con cosas, or rice with things. The label is pejorative. It is aimed mostly at non-Spanish chefs who add chorizo and other ingredients that Valencians say belong in no paella. Famous examples are the recipes of Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay.

  The author Josep Pla was blunt about it. He once wrote: "The abuses committed in the name of Paella Valenciana are excessive , an absolute scandal."

  Then came a twist. In an article for El País, the Spanish food writer Ana Vega, who writes as Biscayenne, cited historical references to show that traditional Valencian paella did in fact include chorizo. She added a line that has been quoted since: "Ah Jamie, we'll have to invite you to the Falles."

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• 7. Fire and Scorched Rice

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  Orange tree branches, pine branches and pine cones are the traditional fuel for a Valencian paella. Cooked over an open fire, the dish takes on their aromatic smoke. Guests traditionally eat straight from the pan instead of from plates.

  Some recipes ask the cook to cover the finished paella and let it settle for five to ten minutes. At the bottom of the pan, a layer of scorched rice may form, called socarrat in Valencià. It develops by itself over a burner or open fire. Tradition counts it as a good thing, provided it does not burn, and Valencia natives enjoy eating it.

  In Spain, restaurants traditionally list paella on their menus on Thursdays.

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• 8. The Emoji Quarrel

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  In 2015, someone proposed a paella emoji to Unicode, and it was approved for Unicode 9.0 in June 2016. Apple's first version showed paella de marisco, the seafood style. After online controversy, Apple changed the picture to a more traditional look that includes chicken.

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