paella

Try "pie-eh-yah" the double L is pronounced like a Y. We (english speakers) pronounce the the double L like "la", but that's wrong, it's pronounced "yah, yeh, yih, yoh, you". got the idea?

Miguel has the pronunciation right. As far as I know, it's considered an East Coast dish. I'm sure you can find restaurants who serve it in Andalusia, but it's not really the local food there.

Yes, I got the idea about the double L from high school Spanish (Castellano).
But I'd forgotten the proper pronunciation of the ae vowel combination, so thank you for the reminder. The first way is how my British relatives (who travel frequently to Spain) pronounce it. They do make an effort to pronounce the local dialect, but sometimes they tend to mispronounce Spanish words...such as tortilla. I've never tried Paella, & never heard it pronounced in Spanish. Therefore, I would like to order it correctly.

Just make sure you order it from a decent place so that you're served something made with quality ingredients - very fresh and authentic. Not sure about Andalusia, but in Madrid (as an example), there are tons of fast food type places in the touristy areas around Puerta del Sol selling their version of paella...basically really crappy fast food paella. You don't have to go to an expensive restaurant, but it should be a place with a lot of locals...ask your hotel for a recommendation.

Nancy's closest, but she was only given two choices. That's the Asturian pronunciation, which for some goofy reason, is also very close to the Andalusian way of saying it. Most Andalusian pronunciations are closer to Rioplatenese Spanish (Don't ask me why, or even why Rioplatense is different from the rest of Argentina). It's a Valencian dish, so Jill's second idea has merit as well, since that's the Valencian pronunciation. Miguel is just a bit off. Sticking just to Castillian, in the case of the double 'L', the first 'L' is pronuounced followed by the "Y' - - as in the English pronunciation of 'million'. Other examples would be 'ella' and 'caballo'. Back to paella, the accent is on the first syllable, thus PIE ale yah is most common in most areas of Spain. Sometimes I even bore my ownself.

Ask your waiter "How long will it take to cook the paella?". If he's says "Less than 15 minutes." than it is the frozen, fast food version. Find a restaurant that prepares it and you'll be quite happy that you relaxed and sipped a drink for 40 minutes. It'll be well worth the wait.

Michael and Bob have the more important answers than how to pronounce it: if you order the pre-made "we-heat-it-up-for-you" kind, it won't matter how well you pronounced it because the food itself will be awful. It can be tricky to find the real thing but a few rules can help: restaurants right along tourist drags and especially ones with "helpful" little pictures on their menu boards will not have it. Look for nice restaurants off the beaten path where it might be listed as a daily special (always check to see if it's still available). Ask the waiter before you sit down about it (like Bob said, real paella will not be ready in a few minutes). And few places with the real thing will serve it to only one person as it's a large dish that takes them lots of kitchen time.

Jill - Just a note on paella (no matter how you choose to pronounce it) and that is that many restaurants throughout Spain will only serve it to two or more patrons - no singles.

Thanks for all the advice for ordering it. Hopefully my husband will be interested in sampling it. I saw Bobby Flay prepare this in a throwdown on Food Network awhile back. Also, my cousins said a man on the street prepared it in a huge pan, & passed out servings to the crowd that gathered round. That was the first time they tried it, and are hooked. That speaks volumes because they are very picky about what they will eat.

Translation please .... what's a throwdown ?

Nigel, throwdown is another word for challenge or fight. In this case, it's referring to a cooking competition.

So in other words Nigel - it's a "food fight" ;-)

And for those of you in Oak Park, Bloomington, or anyone who might be in Chicago, check out Café Iberico on N. La Salle. They have 4 or 5 different types of paella that are pretty darn good.