{"id":61246,"date":"2026-06-16T22:39:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T14:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=61246"},"modified":"2026-06-16T22:39:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T14:39:00","slug":"how-not-to-eat-paella-in-its-home-city-of-valencia-and-the-rise-of-the-spanish-speciality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=61246","title":{"rendered":"How not to eat paella in its home city of Valencia, and the rise of the Spanish speciality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">To order a seafood paella for dinner in Valencia, Spain, is to make two mistakes at once in the eyes of locals, who are ever conscious of tradition.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">First, neither seafood nor fish belongs in a paella. Second, paella is traditionally only served here at lunchtime, preferably on Sundays. Everyone eats together, using wooden spoons straight from the large pan. Paella is more than just a meal; it is a social event and an occasion.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Only a tourist would consider such a thing as eating paella in the evening. It sits heavy in your stomach, so it could disrupt a good night\u2019s sleep, especially as people rarely eat here before 9pm.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">No, in the evening, Valencians prefer to have tapas, maybe at Bar X in the Mercado de Colon, a market hall that ought to be on the itinerary for any visit to Valencia.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Mercado de Colon market hall. Photo: Wolfgang Stelljes\/dpa\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/06\/15\/e054587f-cee2-4e3a-9a4e-ecd79455f881_2ed9ec2e.jpg\" title=\"The Mercado de Colon market hall. Photo: Wolfgang Stelljes\/dpa\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">The Mercado de Colon market hall. Photo: Wolfgang Stelljes\/dpa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 type=\"h3\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"eh0yk8h0 css-17x7qa9 e1pqa4re1\">All about rice<\/h3>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Valencians have a particularly close relationship with paella. After all, <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">this is the home of the popular rice dish<\/span>, though strictly speaking, its origins lie a few kilometres further south, in the Albufera. The Albufera is a nature reserve with a freshwater lake, whose water feeds the surrounding rice fields.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/travel-leisure\/article\/3357111\/how-not-eat-paella-its-home-city-valencia-and-rise-spanish-speciality?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To order a seafood paella for dinner in Valencia, Spain, is to make two mistakes at once in the eyes of locals, who are ever&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[540,572,469,4205,1569,3850,24861,24860],"class_list":["post-61246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-city","tag-eat","tag-home","tag-paella","tag-rise","tag-spanish","tag-speciality","tag-valencia","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}