Viva Valencia! Everything you should (soon) eat and drink in our favorite Spanish city
How wonderful it is that we can travel again, discover other cultures, enjoy sunny beaches, and (if you know us even a little) eat and drink all day long and discover what another city has to offer in culinary terms. You choose those trips carefully, and this destination should really be high on your list: Valencia!
Because it’s beautiful and warm, the people are lovely and seem to want nothing more than to make sure you’re supplied with delicious things non-stop, and there’s plenty to do in a tranquilo kind of way. The city of Valencia is located in the province of Valencia of the same name, and be sure to venture out there because it’s beautiful and the region produces so many wonderful local products. And of course, we can mainly tell you what and where to eat and drink!
Tradition
When someone says Valencia, we prick up our ears and think of two things: paella and tapas. I think that when I was there a while ago, I ate my weight in tapas. And that was on the way to the restaurant. Every day. It’s all so appealing: the snacks displayed at virtually every bar you pass. You simply can’t help ordering one drink every few hundred meters, from wine to a beer or some bubbles, and sliding one of those beautiful bites into your mouth. And then, of course, it becomes two, or three. The fact that Valencia is located by the sea naturally means that amazing fish tapas are displayed everywhere: rarely have I seen so many delicious things from the sea gathered together so beautifully. At the end of your visit, the little skewers are counted, and you pay the (always very reasonable) amount for which you’ve been feasting. And on to the next one.
Settling in
Eventually, you’ll end up at your restaurant for the evening after all. There’s so much to choose from, but the rice dishes are impossible (and undesirable) to ignore, with paella as their undisputed flagship. The city of Valencia is close to Albufera Natural Park (definitely worth a visit!), and in the eighth century the Moors introduced highly successful rice cultivation to the area. Rice is still the pride of Valencian cuisine, with many restaurants making it their central focus: the arrocerías. As mentioned, paella is of course the local pride and joy, but there are many more amazing dishes based on local rice, such as arroz negro (black rice with squid, cooked in its ink), arroz a banda (rice cooked in fish stock with seafood), and arroz al horno (oven-baked rice with meat). To be fair, I did it the wrong way around as a tourist: the local custom is to eat rice in the afternoon and tapas in the evening. Oh well…
Sweet treats
But lovers of sweet things can indulge here too, because if you know anything about the influence of Arab cuisine (which has been present in southern Spanish cuisine for centuries), it may be that they are masters of sweets! Almonds and honey are still used extensively, and you could easily spend an entire day snacking on orelletes (sweet ear-shaped fritters), buñuelos (pumpkin doughnuts), fartons (sweet sugar rolls), and much more. Until, at the end of the day, you return to tapas…
A drink to go with it
Exploring such a magnificent culture and cuisine naturally requires the right drinks to go with it. Horchata is the drink that will get you through the first part of the day. A milky, chilled drink made from tiger nuts, sweet and refreshing. After a late lunch (pick up all kinds of delicious things at the local market, for example, and go for a picnic in one of the lovely quiet parks), it may be time for the first agua de Valencia of the day. Careful, don’t drink it like water, because it’s a (very delicious) cocktail made with orange juice, cava, and Cointreau or a similar liqueur. The city’s house cocktail…
Toot toot: hop on the wine bus
What’s less well known than the fact that you naturally also drink refreshing ice-cold beers and sangria in Valencia is that very tasty local wine is produced in the surrounding area. There are two important designations of origin (Denominación de Origen): Utiel-Requena and Valencia. But even better than reading about it is tasting it! And what do you do when you know very well that wine tasting doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll spit out those sips? You let someone else drive! For a super-relaxed Saturday of wine tasting, simply board the bus in the middle of the city, let it take you out into the beautiful vineyards, visit two wineries and taste away (naturally, take a few bottles home too), while lunch is also provided at a local restaurant. You can read here exactly what such a Valencian wine-bus trip involves.
Surrounded by deliciousness
On the wine bus, as you drive through the landscape around the city, you’ll naturally see all kinds of things already. But there’s also plenty to arrange and see on a longer day trip to the ‘countryside’. As we said, almost everything that makes up the region’s gastronomic pride comes from the province itself. Oranges, olives and olive oil, rice, seafood, fish, wine, almonds: this region has so much sunny beauty to offer… get out there and taste it!
Tempted? Visit visitvalencia.com for more information.
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