Perhaps my favorite dish, but rarely, even in Spain, up to more than modest standards. Best over an open fire overlooking a beach.

In my eyes, an "all seafood" paella is not a paella at all, but a zarzuela, arroz con mariscos, etc.

The required ingredients (aside from rice and saffron) seem to include choriz, chicken, prawns or some of a variety of shrimp-like critters, some larger than others, and without fail, green peas (and maybe pimento)

I live south of SFO.
The king of paella is in sonoma county.
This guy beat Bobby Flay in a throwdown.

have you tried evo bistro in mclean?

No. Good?

my uneducated opinion - sure.

quick google search seems to suggest favorable reviews.

Details, please!

There was a place in Washington DC with decent paella, but I'll be darned if I can remember the name of it.


I'm just mad about saffron.......

Wirelessly posted (Palm TX: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D050; Blazer/4.3) 16;320x448)

Amen !!

Thanks for the idea, warmed it up over a fire so it took on the smoky flavor, it was great.

http://www.gerardspaella.com

And

http://www.fancast.com/tv/Throwdown-.../Paella/videos

I love paella as much as lili does.

Thank you! I was hoping he had a restaurant, but we will have to search out that farmer's market the next time we're in the area.

A friend posted this picture on facebook from a birthday party they were at last week



Now that looks good.

So many of you really should be ashamed of yourselves :

Hardly anyone contributing to this thread will have eaten (or will ever eat) a real, never mind a great paella

For anybody who actually wants to know something about this fantastic dish, here's a thread I made up earlier
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/europ...la-thread.html

No problem, lots of families in the Valencia region don't use saffron for paella but a colorant instead. It's a well accepted variant to omit these stamens.

NO!
There is no variation of paella that legitimately includes chorizo. You're talking about an Arroz dish, there's nothing wrong with this, arroz dishes are great, but no way does a paella ever include chorizo. Anyone who tells you otherwise is ignorant.

Sorry, wrong. A paella does not need to include seafood, not in the slightest.

Absolutely correct.
I disagree about the best scenery, I've had the best paellas in the country surrounded by the smell of sun baked earth and thyme and and stunning views of the sierras/mountains.
Paella de mariscos is a bit of an aberration, and kind of redundant now that few of the ingredients can actually be fished from the Mediterranean any more, but it is a legitimate paella (although most of the best loved Valencian rice and fish dishes are indeed Arrozes - such as the magnificent Arroz a Banda). A Zarzuela has no rice in it.
As I said before NO CHORIZO! Peas are absolutely not required (peas, particularly when they are out of season, are an excellent indicator that the paella is sup-par) but beans are. Chicken and prawns would NEVER be mixed (chicken and rabbit is fine as is chicken and duck). Pimenton/paprika or ground �oras are indispensable, pimento/capsicum peppers are not (but are certainly an acceptable addition to many of the paella variations).

Seriously, if I spoke about wine or liquors in the way you're discussing paella you'd be horrified.
Great idea! Best wood of all to use is that from the orange tree.

Regards

The Valencian Paella Protection Society
(And the saddest part is that I am in no way an expert on paellas, but compared to you guys....)


For the sake of my blood pressure, feel free to continue discussing whatever it is you're all eating. But call it Ecuadorian Paella or whatever variant it is you're enjoying, what most of you aren't discussing here is true Paella, which is Valencian.

Several years ago I was entertaining some Spanish friends in Seattle and took them to the famous Salty's brunch, which featured a giant dish with a sign in front of it that said "Paella". I pointed it out to one of my friends and asked if it made him homesick. He just shook his head, looked at me, and said, "Alan my friend, this is not paella." Meanwhile the table next to us were raving about what great paella it was. I guess paella outside of Spain is kinda like Taco Bell - it's not Mexican, but I like it.

Ooh! Lookie who's finally got a web site: http://www.paellador.es/ LapLap, how many sunburned hordes have gone home raving about this stuff without having benefit of a real paella to compare it to?