A Delicious Defense

This weekend I took the time to visit a tiny town south of Valencia called El Palmar. There were a few decent reasons for the trip--there is a large nature preserve committed to the preservation of La Albufera—but most important was the Paella.

Unfortunately, I haven’t eaten much Paella here yet, but from what many people tell me the lakeside town of El Palmar is a great place to try the starchy delight. The town is a touristy area in the summer, but it is pretty dead in the heart of winter. Most of the restaurants were closed, but the ones that were open had menus full of numerous paellas and other delights I’ve never heard of before. Apparently, the local specialty in a dish called All I Pebre, a peppery eel stew made with slithery critters pulled right from the lake. I didn’t get a chance to try any this trip, however. I was too busy chomping into my first sampling of a paella variety called Arroz Negro.

Traditional Valencian Paella is made with rice, chicken, rabbit and these large green pea pods. The rice is simmered in chicken stocked and is served in the circular black pan it is cooked in. It is creamy like risotto, but not as heavy. It takes about thirty minutes to cook but is worth the wait.


To make the dish more interesting, Arroz Negro adds some of the most delicious defense mechanism in the world—squid ink. The stuff looks like tar but trust me, it is delicious. The restaurant I dined in left the paella as menacing as possible, nothing but rice, a few tiny shrimp and an unidentifiable amount of inky goodness. The rice didn’t taste overwhelming or really exotic, instead, it made me wonder why I haven’t had barrels of black ink in my kitchen all my life. Squid should be terrorized more often if they produce such heavenly goo when frightened.


Be wary, this stuff will turns your mouth, teeth and anything else it touches deathly black. But don’t let that stop you.