The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving and paella fun facts. As we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know.

We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know we will look at Paella fun facts.

National Paella DayPaella Fun Facts. Paella is a Valencian rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near lake Albufera. It is a lagoon in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain. Many non-Spaniards view paella as Spain’s national dish. Most Spaniards consider it to be a regional Valencian dish. Valencians, in turn, regard paella as one of their identifying symbols.

  • There are three widely known types of paella. Valencian paella, seafood paella and mixed paella, but there are many others as well.
    • Valencian paella consists of white rice, green vegetables, meat (rabbit, chicken, duck), land snails, beans and seasoning.
    • Seafood paella replaces meat and snails with seafood and omits beans and green vegetables.
    • Mixed paella is a free-style combination of meat, seafood, vegetables, and sometimes beans. Most paella chefs use calasparra or bomba rices for this dish. Other key ingredients include saffron and olive oil.
  • March 27th is National Paella Day.
  • The Spanish rice dish ‘Paella’ takes its name from the pan it is cooked in, which in turn comes from the Latin word for ‘pan’ or ‘dish.’
  • Valencian restaurateur Juan Galbis claims to have made the world’s largest paella with help from a team of workers on 2 October 2001. This paella fed about 110,000 people according to Galbis’ former website.
  • Paella is primarily eaten at lunchtime, because it is considered too heavy for dinner.

Check out this tasty Paella recipe from Slurp in Albuquerque NM.

Paella Fun Facts We Missed

Please feel free to let us know if we may have missed any paella fun facts in the comment section below. We always love to add to these lists. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Wikipedia: Fun Facts about Paella

Find all of the National Food Holidays to spice up your food truck menu specials throughout the year.