Valencia Food and Travel Guide: Authentic Paella, Horchata and Fideuà

Valencia, on Spain's Mediterranean coast, is the birthplace of paella, and locals are fiercely protective of how it should be made. Forget the touristy seafood-and-chorizo versions: the authentic paella valenciana is built on rice, rabbit, chicken, white beans and snails, cooked over an open flame until the bottom forms a prized crust called the socarrat.

What to eat

• Paella valenciana — the original, with rabbit, chicken and beans, never chorizo.
• Fideuà — paella's cousin made with short noodles instead of rice, usually with seafood.
• Horchata de chufa — a sweet, milky drink made from tiger nuts, served ice-cold.
• Fartons — soft, glazed pastries made for dipping into horchata.
• Esgarraet — roasted red pepper and salt cod salad, a simple Valencian starter.

Where to go

Begin at the Mercat Central, one of Europe's largest covered markets, a modernist hall piled with produce, seafood and jamón. For a meal, the leafy Ruzafa neighborhood mixes traditional rice restaurants with a younger, design-minded crowd. For paella with sea views, locals head to the beachfront restaurants of El Cabanyal and La Malvarrosa.

A practical ordering tip: real paella is a lunch dish, cooked to order for two or more people, so expect to wait 20 to 30 minutes, and be wary of any place displaying pre-made pans of bright yellow paella in the window.

Good to know: away from the beachfront tourist strip, Valencia's rice houses and horchaterías often write their menus in Spanish or Valencian only, so photographing the menu to translate it helps you tell the rice dishes apart and order the genuine article.

Sit down, order the real paella, and savor the dish exactly where it was born.