“Being from Alicante I can confirm that I have never seen a paella like this in Alicante”, “No one in Spain would think of making such a horrible mixture in a paella”, “In my life anywhere in Spain, I don’t tell you in Alicante, I have seen a paella like this” or “What a pain to be from Alicante and see this… What a pain” are just a small sample of the comments that a very sui generis Mixed paella.
Posted on the TikTok account of The Insatiablesa couple of Colombian friends who recommend restaurants in Bogotá, have been more than 700,000 reproductions that this controversial paella has had which, as we can see, has not left many Spaniards who have landed in the publication indifferent.
The irony, as can be seen from the video, is that the cook of the paella is from Alicante and has been living in Colombia for 17 years. chef by profession, paco —as he is referred to in the video— usually works in event kitchens, taking advantage of Sundays to feed some Spanish specialties such as potato omelette or paella.
In this case, what he considers paella from Alicante, where more than the drama of the ingredients used —which are also brought to him— lies in how the paella is resolved. On the shopping list Starting from the fact that we are talking about a mixed paella and not a Valencian paella, we can find everything.
An attack against the mixed paella
Explain that there is pork, chicken, octopus, squid, paprika, tomatobeans —green beans—, peas —peas—… He comments that it is “like a fried food” and then adds the seafood, in the case of this preparation, such as mussels, clams, shrimps —prawns—, squid rings or, as indicated in this case, “prawns”.
However, not only the drama is in the ingredients —which I would give to analyze long and hard— but in the very way of making the paella, although it is true that, in defense of Paco, we are only seeing the edited video. Maybe there is still some hope in his kitchen, but looking at the end result, maybe there isn’t. However, it is not the first time that it has been photographed on networks or on YouTube and, curiously, it has more followers than we would think.
The drama is in that does not skip or do any kind of stir-fry, but he has directly cooked all the ingredients —except the shellfish— in another casserole, cooking everything, and using it as the base of the paella. Once this base is poured into the paella, let it reduce a bit and add the basmati rice, in this case (sorry, Valencians. It hurt us too) and stir the paella thoroughly so that it integrates? and later add the seafood.
As a final touch, he mentions that the secret is the salmorreta, which we don’t know when or how he makes it or adds it, so maybe it’s Schrodinger’s Salmorreta because it could be or it could not be.
Enamelled Valencian Paellera 19 people/ 60 cm
Finally, to advise how to eat it, he puts a simile: “paella is like pizza”. Not because it is eaten with the hands —fortunately—, but because it serves the paella directly on the table and recommends that we eat from it directly. Perhaps the only purist of all this coven that has made a dent in TikTok.
Images | The Insatiables
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