We had guests over for dinner last night and I made paella but at Mr. CE's request omitted the clams. We both agreed the dish was a failure without them -- dry and bland. It bummed me out because paella is one of my favs and I usually look forward to leftovers but I'll probably just toss these

(Mr. CE had long complained of a metallic taste when eating paella, and I thought it might come from the clams, but he said he tasted it again last night. His new theory is that it's the saffron. Looking online I see some people do perceive its taste as metallic -- and yes, we're using saffron from high quality sources -- but there's no way I'd omit it so he may just have to suck it up every year or two when I want to make paella.)