Paella? yeah I'm trying to be more easily understandable in my writing than having that bla bla in foreword which I've been doing all this time, and now I'm trying to avoid it which is not easy, so the goal is to achieve rather brief gastronomical history yet full of reading point. So what is paella? a rice, alongside with any bit of whatever in hand or a leftover soaked in broth then cooked in iron cast over a hot fire? yes its shallow way of summarizing so why don't we goes straight into the trusty source and gather most of the point and make it into my own writing? sounds good, right? (´?`)
A little short history of this dish, it is known originated in eastern region of Spain called Valencia, its actually based from a leftover from a royal Moorish royal banquets, the servants then cook it up over open an open fire that is known for its authentic taste well like at that time there's no such thing as a stove duh, then bring it home to their family, to think this dish is actually a hearty dish that brings warmth that are created with simplest yet rich history background. The word paella it self are known came from Arabic word "Baqiyah", which means "leftovers" make sense right? but another speculation is that the word paella itself are derived from a Latin word "patella", which was a flat plate used for religious offerings made to gods. Interesting enough so far.
How then it became a well known dish is when goes through the mid-nineteen hundreds when paella became a popular dish served to laborers. The worker then would gather around in midday, combining a leftovers with rice, and cook it over an open fire! yes this the correct method to do so for this dish is actually for a gathering like so, like you can see it in the Youtube or any media where they mostly cook it with a rather wide pan specially for paella it self over on open fire, where they usually use a high fire then let it be until the fire then dies out letting it rest for a moment then ready to be enjoyed together. It is believed that most paella dishes at that time consisted of snails and whatever vegetables the workers could scrounge up, or make it fancy like maybe adding up meats like chicken or rabbit were only added for special occasions.
Like any other national or legendary dishes, it goes better with the time goes on, where anything is more approach and affordable. Today, paella usually cooked over an open fire in a traditional pan like we know, it can be made with rice, chicken, fish, shellfish, eel, rabbit, squid, artichokes, snails, beans, peppers, or any other vegetables you'd like to add in, like it have to be suitable of course lol, Classic way of making paella usually with rabbit, chicken, snails, beans like broad beans, and artichokes, it is seasoned with saffron, among with other spices of course, thus are the base of Valencian Paellas.
So, what do you think so far? interesting am I right? Makes you want to travel around the world just to eat here and there, just thinking about it makes me so frickin' excited (???)
