The Valencian table: ten dishes, wines and spirits

About The Valencian table: ten dishes, wines and spirits

By the ULTIMATE Valencia Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Valencia is the home of paella and the capital of rice. Its cooking comes from the huerta, the lagoon of the Albufera and the sea, and it is generous, sunny and best eaten at lunch. Here are the ten dishes to try, the wines and drinks of the region and the protected produce you will see in every market.

Ten dishes to try

Paella valenciana: the original, from the huerta, not the sea. Rice is cooked in a wide, shallow pan with chicken, rabbit, flat green beans (ferraura), large white garrofó beans, tomato, olive oil and saffron, sometimes with snails or a sprig of rosemary, ideally over a wood fire. The prize is the socarrat, the caramelised crust at the bottom. In Valencian, paella is the name of the pan itself.

Arròs a banda: rice cooked in a rich fish stock, served “apart” from the fish, with allioli.

In Valencia, paella is the name of the pan, and lunch is the time to eat it.

Arròs negre: rice blackened with cuttlefish ink, again with allioli.

Arròs al forn: rice baked in an earthenware dish with chickpeas, pork, black pudding, potato and a whole head of garlic: a home-cooked dish, rarely on tourist menus.

Fideuà: the noodle cousin of paella, made with short, thin pasta and seafood. It was born in Gandia, on the coast south of Valencia.

All i pebre: eels from the Albufera stewed with garlic, paprika and potato. Order it in El Palmar, in the middle of the lagoon.

Esgarraet: strips of roasted red pepper with salt cod, garlic and olive oil, a tapa that goes with everything.

Clòtxines: Valencia’s small local mussels, from late spring through the summer, steamed simply with lemon, pepper and bay.

Bunyols de carabassa: pumpkin fritters fried in front of you during the Fallas in March and dipped in hot chocolate.

Horchata with fartons: horchata, or orxata, is a cold, milky drink made from tiger nuts (chufa) grown around Alboraya, just north of the city. Dunk a farton, a long, soft, sugar-glazed bun, into it.

The wines of Valencia

Inland, on the high plateau around Requena and Utiel, the DO Utiel-Requena grows Bobal, a dark local grape that makes deep, fruity reds and fresh rosés; Requena also makes cava. The DO Valencia is known for Moscatel de Valencia, a sweet, golden wine from Muscat grapes, and to the south the DO Alicante makes Fondillón, a rare, long-aged wine from overripe Monastrell grapes.

Spirits and cocktails

Agua de Valencia is the city’s own cocktail: fresh orange juice with cava, gin and vodka, served by the jug. It was first mixed in 1959 by Constante Gil at Valencia’s Café Madrid. In the mountains of the Sierra de Mariola, herbero is a herbal liqueur made with local plants and protected as Herbero de la Sierra de Mariola, and Alicante has its own aniseed-and-lavender liqueur, Cantueso Alicantino.

From the huerta

Look for the protected names: Arroz de Valencia, the rice of the Albufera paddies, including the round bomba variety; Chufa de Valencia, the tiger nut for horchata; Cítricos Valencianos, the region’s oranges and mandarins, best from November to spring; Kaki Ribera del Xúquer, sweet persimmons in autumn; and the artichokes of Benicarló, to the north.

Where to taste

For paella cooked over wood, book Casa Carmela by the beach, a family business for four generations, or La Pepica on the promenade, serving rice since 1898; in the centre, Navarro has cooked rice since 1951. Drink horchata at the Horchatería de Santa Catalina in the old town or at Horchatería Daniel in Alboraya, and shop at the Mercado Central and the Mercado de Colón. All are in this guide.

Our advice: eat paella at lunchtime, as Valencians do, never at dinner, and order it in advance where the restaurant asks you to. Rice takes time, and the wait is part of the pleasure.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with The Valencian table: ten dishes, wines and spirits before you go.