The umpteenth viral controversy Twitter this summer touches again one of those inexhaustible topics that always generate fast-digesting content. Until the next occurrence of the shift network.
This time it has been the turn of the Valencian paella once again to confront its defenders and detractors, but at least this time it does so with good humor. Already from the inaugural message of the controversial thread, the user Javi López (@javilop) starts by declaring that “Today I came to make friends.” He is not satisfied with simply highlighting dishes that, in his opinion, may be better than the iconic paella, he directly states that “they give him a beating“.
Of course your whole thread is loaded with irony and some conscious bad milk, and the answers he receives, not all of them very friendly, are taken without acrimony or bad manners. Nor could more be expected from a network like Twitter if, in addition, it includes rice, three delicacies from Chinese restaurants, while forgetting other traditional dishes such as baked rice, which it later includes as an amendment after the responses received.
Susceptibilities that I have hurt (and that I did not expect, not like when I messed with the paella 😂) when the rice thread went viral 🙏
I open 🧵👇
– Javi López ⛩️ (@javilop) August 24, 2022
The complete list of rice dishes that claims above the Valencian paella includes:
- Rabbit rice and snails with vine shoots (Alicante and Region of Murcia).
- Cauldron of the Mar Menor (Murcia Region).
- Mellow rice with lobster.
- Arròs negre (Black rice, Costa Daurada).
- Iberico secret sweet rice with boletus and truffle (Alicante and Levante).
- Risotto with funghi and tartufo bianco (Italy).
- Rice with duck breast and artichokes (Alicante and Levante).
- Seafood rice.
- Soupy rice with oxtail (mainly in Valencia) .
- Rice three delights (“in the nearest Chinese or in the frozen section of your supermarket”).
In the offended reactions, which he later collects, he includes those who regret that forgotten about other rice such as the one mentioned in the oven or the rice with a crust, they also blame him for having declared “rice dishes from the peninsula” including an Italian one and forgetting about Portugal, or for using conflicting terms such as “Levante” and “Murcia” to refer to areas of the Region outside the municipality of the capital.
That the protection of the Valencian paella does not prevent us from seeing other rice dishes
It would be absurd to deny the value and importance of Valencian paella both in its place of origin and at a national level, ambassador of our cuisine around the world and converted into an icon that even has its own emoji. Declared an Asset of Cultural Interest and extensively studied, its importance goes beyond the purely gastronomic, and precisely for this reason it must be admitted that it does not have to be a dish that everyone likes.
The value of paella does not imply underestimating the taste for other rice dishes
In WTP We have already declared our love for many other traditional rice dishes that give flavor to other regional cultures, and it does not shock us to contemplate the supposed aberrations that are committed by the world in the name of palliellia. Must protect tradition and the history of Valencian paella -although there is no single original recipe-, but if you enjoy rice three delights from the Chinese in your neighbourhood, in your law are.
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