Is this Spain's most authentic Paella? - BBC

You won't catch me eating snails, so no " authentic" Paella Valenciana for us!

Speaking of grills, the NYT just featured a good-looking recipe for paella on a wood-fired grill:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016085-grilled-paella

( I apologize if this is behind a paywall but hopefully not).

When planning to go to Spain 2 years ago, and then adding Valencia to the itinerary, I was so excited to be getting paella...thinking 'seafood'. I read about the traditional one and was a little disappointed. What I read had chicken instead of snails, but as it was meant to be what meat you could easily get - snails were most likely easy to pick from the garden. I do eat them, so no matter. The biggest challenge, however, was trying to find a place that would serve it to one person. In the paella shops near the coast, it tends to be minimum of 2 persons. I did stop at a reputed restaurant up at the top of old town, but I can't say I was overly impressed with it. It was lunch time, so it had been premade and meant for quick lunch turnover for workers, I think. I was most likely the only tourist that day. I could barely tell the difference between the 2 flavours, but I was travel weary and wasn't going to complain. They were generous with the wine pours too, so maybe the taste buds were dulled.
We had a few years in Cuba when I was a baby, and it was interesting to see the differences and commonalities between the Spanish influence on Cuban cuisine. My mom loved to cook, and she loved Cuba, so she kept up her favourites and I learned about soffrito from her. It's the basis of so much of my own cooking as well. Growing up a family standby was Arroz con pollo - a slightly speedier version of paella and we would occasionally add shrimp to fancy it up and arborio rice when we could get it...never could find Spanish rice.

Carlos - I can say one of the best Paellas I have ever tasted was in Nerja, Andulusia at Chiringuito de Ayo. It's very authentic and the aroma is irresistible. It has a combination of seafood and chicken and variety of spices and herbs. Be sure to check it out next time you are passing through Nerja. The paella in Valencia i regret to say does not have that same flavor and eating rabbits and snails as toppings on a Paella is my soup du jour. But as you said, every family has their own recipes and different taste of paellas appeal to different people. If you do happen to be visiting Seville in the near future, El 3 de Oro is the place to go to indulge yourself in an authentic paella. You see a lot of locals there and the food is excellent.

One of the best paella’s I ever had was a vegetarian version at a sidewalk cafe in the Eixample area of Barcelona. Sorry I can’t remember the name of the restaurant.

I've eaten my fair share of paella over the years, some more memorable than others. I have eaten a good Valencian style with rabbit, chicken and snails but I prefer the ones I've eaten in Andalucia that consist of shellfish. However if there is Chipirones con allioli on the menu then the paella gets ignored completely.

Definitely has to be seafood for me. The most disappointing Paella I had was at the 7 Portes restaurant in Barcelona. It was not good and table service was awful--very rude waiter. OTOH my favorite Paella was in Madrid at Museo Vinos on Victoria. It is the restaurant with wine bottles on the ceiling. The Paella was excellent--no disappointment whatsoever.

@Lola - I was able to see the recipe, over all pretty good! The have the important idea which is to cook over an open even flame, which is why grills are pretty good for Paella. However they committed the mortal sin of adding Chorizo to a Paella, this is the only big no-no of making a Paella. There was actually a bit of an controversy in Spain a few years ago when British chef Jamie Oliver added Chorizo to his Paella lol - Jamie Oliver's paella recipe blasted by Spaniards over inclusion of chorizo

@Maria - yes there are many culinary legacies that can still be seen through the former Spanish Empire, one of the best Paella I ever had was actually in Mexico, on the Riviera Maya!

@Rjean - thanks for the recommendations, you describe their Paella so well, yum :)

@Mary - yes I've noticed that vegetarian Paellas are becoming quite popular in Spain, some are actually quite good.

@JC - those Chipirones are quite irresistible, I also really like Sepia a la plancha, con ajo y perejil, that's my go-to seafood :)

@Susan - I agree 7 Portes still has the name, but has gone down the drain these past couple of years while their prices have gone up. Next time try a place simply called Barceloneta, I went there with some friends over the summer, it has incredible views of the city and the port. In addition to Paella and Fideuà, they also have a pretty good Arroz Caldoso, which is a rice dish made with a lobster fumet. Another local dish they make there, that's pretty good, is called Arroz Negro, it is like a Paella but made with squid ink, so it is very visually unique.

Valencia - La Riua. Best paella I've had.