The food of Valencia relies on rice, the short-grained variety grown on the outskirts of the city. Credit the Moors for introducing the grain to Spain in the eighth century and for devising the canals that provide irrigation.
Where there is rice in Valencia, there is paella; in particular, paella Valenciana. It is delicious; it is simple; it is a lunch dish for the Valencians, who feel it is too heavy for dinner.
In its home, paella is not a mixture of meats and seafood but of meats in one type, seafood in another.
I have read that there is a “paella mixta” that combines those elements, but I never saw it on a menu, and everyone I talked to turned up his nose at such a suggestion. Valencians are likely to say that mixing meats and seafood muddies the flavors.
A vegetarian version is another possibility.
Saffron imparts not only its color, but its flavor, as well, though some people claim it is not essential.
I enjoyed paellas in many Valencian restaurants, and all were good. The most memorable paella, though, a dish for eight, was served at Casa Ripoll on the Malvarrosa Beach (Paseo Maritimo 7; 34/963-550-022). It is a been-there-forever restaurant, and the paellas, other rice dishes and fresh fish are indications of its long-standing popularity.
In the paella, which followed tapas, all of the shrimp faced center, but not for long once the meal was placed in the center of a blue tablecloth, accompanied by pitchers of local white wine. Sliding glass doors opened onto the sand; the sun was glorious; the setting so beautiful that it hurt the eyes.
Here are some of the other restaurants I enjoyed:
At the top, I put Restaurante Sergio Alarco (Marino Blas de Lezo 23; 46022 Valencia; phone 963-552-280), named for the young chef-owner, who opened it in what he believes is “a zone of the future.” His cooking is very much contemporary Spanish.
Dinner included a great gazpacho; a dish of vegetables composed like a lasagna; a salad with shrimp, salmon, avocado, potato and mushrooms; foie gras with peaches; clams, calamari and spinach; suckling pig that had been soaked in olive oil before roasting, served with a reduction of red wine, shallots and prunes; a red wine granita; and a memorable chocolate souffle with cinnamon ice cream. The evening was made more enjoyable by the Spanish wines recommended by the sommelier.
Almost tied with Sergio Alarco is Seu Xerea (Conde Almodovar 4; 963-924-000; www.seuxerea.tdv.net), in old-city Valencia. Chef Steve Anderson, of English and Burmese heritage, is keen on organic ingredients and is very knowledgeable about wine and pairing wine with the interesting fusionesque combinations he creates, such as magret of duck with tropical fruit compote, lemon grass and lime sauce, and a lamb tagine with crispy green beans wrapped in ham and phyllo.
The dinner began with a delicious ajo blanco, a cold soup — a puree of blanched almonds, bread, garlic and ice water, usually garnished with green grapes but replaced with fresh cockles in Mr. Anderson’s version.
Also: a duck confit, sea bream, boquerones (a kind of fresh anchovy) with peppers, Thai-style crunchy chicken rolls with mango sauce, and rabbit wrapped in Iberico ham.
La Riu, also in the old city (Mar 27; 963-919-183), is one of those friendly old restaurants that are popular with a spectrum of society and predictable for food and atmosphere. The lunch included very good paella, arroz abanda (rice cooked in fish broth, but with fish served separately) and arroz al horno (rice baked with meat).
Bodega Montana (Jose Benlliure 69, Valencia; 963-672-314; www.emilianobodega.com) is a charming wine bar that has been serving regional specialties since 1836 in Cabanyal, the city’s old fishermen’s barrio. Montana has more than 30,000 bottles of wine from 110 vineyards — and about 200 whiskeys and brandies. Enter the small bar, and a doorway leads to a one-room restaurant, but we ate in a second private room, which doubles as a wine cellar.
We had anchovies; another tasty gazpacho; fava beans; cod croquettes; clotxinas (like mussels but more flavorful) and those wonderful pimientos de piquillos (roasted sweet peppers); lots of sausages, including chorizo; and a solomillo (steak) with scallions.
La Matandeta (Carretera Alfafar-El Saler, 46910 Alfafar; 962-112-184) is in the country near the new course of the Turio River, south of Valencia. Because its site is amid rice fields, the lights outdoors at night drew quite a few flying insects — but only one person in our group of eight said she was bitten by them. The food was worth the bugs.
I made two visits to A Fuego Lento (Antigua Senda Senet 3, Valencia; 963-371-956), which is a pleasant walk from the Holiday Inn Valencia (Paseo de Alameda 38; 963-032-100; valencia.holiday-inn.com/vlcpa_sp/index.shtml). A Fuego Lento, which has other locations in the city, is a comfortable, unassuming restaurant in a neat modern style, and it serves Spanish food that, obviously, makes it worth going back.
The Holiday Inn also has a pleasant restaurant and a terrace that is a fine spot for an espresso, except in the noonday sun.
The real dining surprise was the restaurant at Oceanographic — the aquarium — in Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences. The usual rice dishes held their own, but the view was over-the-top — even though we were on the bottom, underwater in a round restaurant surrounded by a glass wall in which universities of colorful fish swam and swam.
Upstairs in the real world, the crowd was touristy, but down below with the fishes, it was a bravura performance, not what one would expect in a museum restaurant. This, though, is Valencia, and dining, even among bugs or fishes, is a fine affair.
Valencia most of all is the place to enjoy paella; it doesn’t taste like this in restaurants back home.
Penelope Casas writes in her essential “Discovering Spain: An Uncommon Guide,” (Alfred A. Knopf):
“Once you have tasted authentic paella, I’m sure you will agree with me that the atrocities committed worldwide in the name of Paella a la Valenciana are appalling. … I prefer paella at home or abstain.”
I prefer my paella in Valencia.
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