page_title: Paella
section_title: Seafood and mixed paella
hierarchical_section_title: Paella / History / Seafood and mixed paella
caption_attribution_description: English: Making a Paella&#160;: cooking paella Deutsch: Paella zaubern&#160;: kochende Paella Español: Hacer una paella&#160;: paella hirviendo
context_page_description: Paella is a Spanish rice dish originally from Valencia.
  Paella is one of the best-known dishes in Spanish cuisine. For this reason, many non-Spaniards view it as Spain's national dish, but Spaniards almost unanimously consider it to be a dish from the Valencian region. Valencians, in turn, regard paella as one of their identifying symbols.
  Paella takes its name from the wide, shallow traditional pan used to cook the dish on an open fire. Paella means "frying pan" in Valencian, Valencia's regional language.
  As a dish, it may have ancient roots, but in its modern form it is traced back to the mid-19th century, in the rural area around the Albufera lagoon adjacent to the city of Valencia, on the east coast of Spain.
  Paella valenciana is the traditional paella of the Valencia region, believed to be the original recipe, and consists of round grain rice, bajoqueta and tavella, rabbit, chicken, sometimes duck, garrofó, and optionally snails. Artichoke hearts and stems may be used as seasonal ingredients. Olive oil is used as a base, while saffron and whole rosemary branches are used as seasoning.
context_section_description: On the Mediterranean coast, Valencians used seafood instead of meat and beans to make paella. Valencians regard this recipe as authentic, as well. In this recipe, the seafood is served in the shell. A variant of this is paella del senyoret which uses seafood without shells. Later, however, Spaniards living outside of Valencia combined seafood with meat from land animals and mixed paella was born. This paella is sometimes called preparación barroca (baroque preparation) due to the variety of ingredients and its final presentation.
  During the 20th century, paella's popularity spread past Spain's borders. As other cultures set out to make paella, the dish invariably acquired regional influences. Consequently, paella recipes went from being relatively simple to including a wide variety of seafood, meat, sausage (including chorizo), vegetables and many different seasonings. However, the most globally popular recipe is seafood paella.
  
  Throughout non-Valencia Spain, mixed paella is relatively easy to find. Some restaurants both in Spain and abroad that serve this mixed version refer to it as Paella valenciana. However, Valencians insist that only the original two Valencia recipes are authentic, and generally view all others as inferior, not genuine or even grotesque.
caption: Traditional preparation of paella
exif: {}