Rules for eating paella

You've probably heard or practised some rules of dining etiquette, such as that you have to eat sushi with chopsticks or something more "elegant" like "raise your little finger while drinking tea".

You'd think paella would be absent from these rules of table etiquette, but you might be surprised to discover that, like many other dishes, it has its own, which many master rice cooks might call the etiquette of eating paella.

In this blog post we'll give you a brief overview of what people consider to be the rules for eating paella.

Where do these rules originate?

Interestingly, what we might call the rules for eating paella go as far back as its creation.

These "rules" originated from years of eating paella, where the particularities of its eaters to eat it ended up becoming unwritten rules, spreading by word of mouth to be applied to all paella dishes and, consequently, becoming part of the dish.

Not following them does not imply at any time that we are tainting the dish, far from it, the paella will taste just as good, they are simply rules that bring us closer to experiencing our paella as it was done in the past and as many still do today.

No plates are used, you eat directly from the paella.

A rule so common that it is synonymous with the dish itself, paella is eaten directly from the paella pan, with no need to serve it on plates.

Where you sit determines which side of the paella you should consider yours, and that is where you take whatever you want to eat as long as it is directly in front of you.

In the early days of paella, this was done because the dish was commonly prepared in the fields, over a wood fire, which meant that no one usually carried plates on them.

In order not to have to return home, the workers would simply stand around the paella and take food from wherever they were. The act became so popular that it is practically a norm that everyone who seeks to eat paella knows almost without research, i.e. a synonym for the dish.

Of course, if the number of diners is such that allowing everyone to eat directly from the paella is impossible, it is obviously a better idea to serve it on plates so that everyone has an individual portion.

The "voreta" is respected, it is an impassable wall.

Traditionally referred to as cavallonet or voreta, it refers to what we might call a "wall" or line of rice and ingredients that usually separates each diner's portion of paella.

The common way of eating paella means that each diner eats from what is in front of them, from their sides to the centre of the paella.

Similar to a pie or pizza, paella is divided into portions decided by the position of each diner, this commonly results in eating in such a way that one ends up forming a triangle, leaving some sides of rice and the centre of the paella intact until the end.

The sides of this triangle are commonly not touched until the rest of the diners have finished their portion or, at least, the diner eating next to us has eaten what we might consider his or her share, so that neither diner reaches into what we might call the other's portion.

This rule comes from having good manners, it goes without saying that anyone would be pissed off if they are eating and someone puts their spoon in your plate, similarly, no one likes it if the person next to them eats their portion of paella.

There is no other spoon like the wooden spoon.

Although the latter is something that can be forgiven nowadays, after all, we tend to use the kitchen utensils we have at home, the truth is that, traditionally and very commonly nowadays, paella has always been eaten with a spoon, to be exact, with a wooden spoon on the paella pan, and with a fork on a plate.

There are many reasons, according to master rice cooks, some say that the use of the wooden spoon is due to the fact that it allows the rice to be pressed against the spoon, preventing it from falling and allowing the rice to be scooped up better, others say it is because, unlike metal cutlery, it avoids scraping the surface of the paella, thus avoiding damaging it in the process of enjoying it.

The real reason is much less technical, in the old days, each worker used to bring his own cutlery from home to eat in the countryside, and the cutlery of choice, due to the popular meals of yesteryear, which were generally based on pots and stews that could be left prepared, used to be the spoon, which were of very good quality, as they were used for almost everything that was to be eaten.

Its use was such that it was even common that when you had finished eating, you would rest your wooden spoon on your portion of the paella, to indicate to the rest of the diners that you had finished and that you had enjoyed the paella. More than simply signalling how you liked the paella, it served as a green light for the rest of the diners to reach into your portion of paella, in case you had left any rice or ingredients behind.

This feeling of love for the spoon, the favourite eating utensil for the working man, ended up becoming a tradition and it is for this reason that many rice cooks say that they eat paella with a spoon.

The reason why a fork is usually used if paella is eaten on a plate is just as simple, the paella commonly serves as a support if we want to cut the meat or fish with the spoon, in the absence of that solid support, the fork makes it much easier to cut the meat with just the fork.

If you don't feel like it, you can take it to the centre.

The expression "to each his own" is also perfectly applicable to food, and paella is no exception to this saying.

If one of the ingredients is not your favourite or you are fed up with it and don't want it in the middle of your portion of paella, it is common to put it aside in the middle, so that the other diners can pick it up and eat it if they wish. It is a polite way of sharing what you don't want with the other diners.

When there is no more rice for everyone and we only have the centre and the voreta left, the best way then to avoid those ingredients we don't want is to move them to one side of our portion, so that we and the other diners have access to the centre of the paella.

If someone else wants those ingredients, they can ask us for them and we will spoon them to their side of the paella.

If you eat meat, let it stay in your share.

The lack of a plate can make it difficult to eat the meat or fish in the paella - after all, no one wants to have someone else's half-eaten food on their plate.

The most common way to avoid upsetting the other diners is as simple as keeping the meat on our side of the paella.

If the meat or fish has bones/shells in it, you can leave it in the corner of your paella portion or, if you are eating at a table, you can place these parts on a handkerchief or napkin next to you, as it goes without saying that no one wants to swallow a bone.

The paella is not turned under any circumstances

In some meals that are served in the centre of the table, it can be common to turn the plate to reach the parts that interest us or that ingredient that we like so much, for example in a stew or a salad.

This should never be done with paella, not only because it may be considered by some as disrespectful, but also because as paella is divided into portions per diner, turning it means changing the portions for each diner.

If there is an ingredient that you really like, the best thing to do is to ask the diner nicely and have them pass it to you, either by placing it in the centre or with the utensil they are using to eat it.

Lemon drops, for flavour

Lemon is considered by some to be an optional ingredient which can be squeezed into the paella with a couple of drops.

If you are one of these people, it is recommended that you give a warning before squeezing the lemon, splitting some of the rice from your portion for yourself, so that it does not fall into the portions of others, as long as those diners at your side do not want lemon like you do.

Interestingly, the origin of the use of this ingredient on paella also goes back to the origins of paella, but not because it was another ingredient in the fields, let alone even as an optional ingredient.

In factory or metallurgy work, it was common to end up with hands full of smut, also called soot, while, in the fields, one ended up with sweaty or greasy hands. The most common way in the old days to cleanse the hands of these substances was, unexpectedly, with lemon juice, as the acid in the lemon allows it to wash off the hands and removes much of the bacteria.

Certain circles tell that some worker with a culinary nature came up with the idea of squeezing a couple of drops of lemon into the paella, so as not to spoil the rest of a lemon after cleaning his hands, and from there, the use of lemon as a condiment for paella arose, being later popularised by word of mouth or because more than one person came up with the same idea.

Another more modern story, dating back to the time of Spain's tourist boom, suggests that why some people use lemon in paella is due to tourists. Lemon was commonly used as a garnish on paella, especially seafood paella, and tourists, who did not know how the dish was eaten, assumed it was part of the dish and squeezed it on top. As they liked it and it attracted the clientele, no cook decided to say otherwise, so it became a possible optional condiment.

If you put portions on a plate, from the middle of the paella

There is always the possibility that there are so many people that eating directly from the paella is a bad idea, or perhaps there are children among the diners and making them eat directly from the paella would make them not reach it.

For this type of problem, the best solution is to serve the paella on plates, but if you do this, you do it from the centre of the paella, or as we call it in Valencia, it is "escudella" from the centre. This is usually done by the paella cook himself, so that no one can say that there is favouritism.

The reason is that, in this way, you do not alter the portion of the paella for those who are going to eat directly from the paella pan.

Obviously, if you never had the idea of eating from the paella and the idea was to plate all the portions, choose and distribute where you see fit.
We hope this guide will help you to eat paella the way it should be, ¡rice lovers!