OR YOUR next party or event, create a Spanish-inspired meal with paella! When it comes to Spanish gastronomy, Andalucia Paella can provide you with an unforgettable Spanish-themed event you and your guests will enjoy, and talk about for a long time.

One of Spain's most famous culinary creations, paella is a golden rice dish renowned throughout the world. In Andalucia, paella is fiesta food, happy food, served for a picnic in the countryside or for Sunday lunch. Often cooked outdoors, for fiesta days, the men are usually in charge of the cooking.

Spanish rice dishes originated around Valencia, Spain after the Moors introduced it to Europe after the eighth century. In Spanish, the word for rice is arroz, which comes from the Arabic aruz.

Peasants in this rice-growing region used grain to cook their midday meal in the countryside. There, they would cook the rice in a shallow, two-handled frying pan-called a paella in the local dialect. The frying pan was placed over a fast-burning fire of dry vine prunings or wood. Added to the frying pan were other wetland ingredients such as eel, frogs, rabbit, snails, and wild duck. Later, seafood ingredients would find their way into this one-pot sensation, as rice paddies were not near the sea.

The traditional Valencia rice used for paella is a round, medium-short grain rice that has great capacity to absorb the flavors of the foods with which it cooks-chicken, olive oil, pork, seafood, and vegetables.