It’s the biggest and most important meal of the day. It usually consists of three courses and lasts an hour and a half. Because lunch is so late, cena (dinner) doesn’t starts until nine or nine-thirty at night. Don’t worry— snacks between meals are very common here. It took a while for me to adjust to this schedule. My stomach would start growling at eleven for lunch, but most local restaurants don’t even open until one.
As part of my study abroad program in Valencia, I have the unique opportunity to participate in a Spanish cooking and cuisine course this semester. Every Wednesday afternoon I ride a bus to the other side of the city to a place called Valencia Club Cocina and learn how to to cook classic Spanish dishes from professionally trained chefs.
This week in class, I learned how to prepare Valencia’s most well-known dish, paella! Paella is a rice dish topped with vegetables, meat, and/or seafood. The most common meats found in paella are rabbit and chicken. The vegetables usually vary depending on which are in season, and who’s cooking. Green beans, onions, carrots, and lima beans are some of the most used. Artichokes are also very common in all types of paella and give the dish its golden-orange color. Seafood is common in paella on the coast. Clams, shrimp, squid, and monkfish are all typical of this dish. The flavors are very rich and salty but there’s a hint of smokiness in every bite due to the paprika and rosemary added to the top.
