Valencian Cuisine
Paella valenciana, fideuá, all i pebre, fartons. Essential Mediterranean.
Valencian Chicken and Rabbit Paella
Valencian paella is the most iconic dish of Valencia, made with bomba rice, chicken, rabbit, flat green beans, garrofón and saffron. The key is the socarrat — that slightly crispy caramelised layer that forms on the bottom of the pan. Traditionally cooked over wood fire, it is the definitive Spanish rice dish.
Black Rice with Alioli
The striking contrast between the black rice and the white alioli makes this one of the most photographed dishes in Spanish cuisine. The intense ocean flavor from the squid ink makes it one of the most memorable.
Valencian Fideuà with Alioli
Fideuà is the seafood cousin of Valencian paella, made with thick noodles (nº4) instead of rice, cooked in a rich fish stock with prawns, langoustines, mussels, and squid, finished with a tomato sofrito, sweet paprika, and saffron. The trick is letting the noodles absorb all the broth and toast lightly on the bottom to get that coveted socarrat crust. Always served with alioli on the side.
Valencian Cuisine: cooking guide
Valencian cuisine invented paella and that alone makes it essential. But there is more: fideuà with its toasted noodle crust, eel all i pebre from Lake Albufera, mountain rice with rabbit and snails, fartons dipped in tiger nut horchata. A gastronomy combining sea, orchard and mountain with an ease only centuries of tradition can produce.