To be or not to be a Paella

In our Native Spanish Tapa Tours, we serve one of the best paellas in town, for Madrileños (people from Madrid) of course it’s the case. Paella competition is fierce in all of Spain and is considered to be one of the best Spanish Tapas in Madrid. Let’s look at the history of this delicious Spanish plate and where it stands today.

Rice was first introduced in Spain by the Arab settlers in the 15^th century in the region of Valencia. The first documented paella is from the 16^th century. These first paellas were elaborated with basic ingredients found in vegetable gardens, such as rabbit, chicken, green-pepper, onion, tomatoes, green beans, white lima-beans, saffron and rice of course.

Spanish food and paellas have evolved a lot since then, which takes us back to the beginning of this post:

Who makes the best paella in Spain?, the answer is: “everybody does!”.

Right, and now what? If you are travelling around Spain and want some of the best Spanish Tapas, we recommend trying different paellas and coming up with your own conclusion. If you are in a Madrid tapas tours, we recommend our Madrileña paella because in the center of Spain, paellas are made with meat and seafood, in the south of Spain they are made primarily with seafood, in the north they are more pricier because they add shell-fish. In fact every region has its own paella style; just as its origins, it depends on what ingredients are available.