| Local Spanish cuisine Jávea has many restaurants specialising both in international and local cooking. The town has a rich culinary tradition, maintained unspoiled among local families, and the dishes may be tasted in many of the town's restaurants and tapa bars. The restaurants are not restricted to local cuisines - there are a huge variety at every price range.  As Jávea is a coastal town, rice and fish are staple items in its cooking, in their most mouth-watering varieties. It is the Moors we can thank for introducing rice to Valencia in the eighth century - the Spanish word for rice 'arroz' derives from the Arabic word ar-ruzz. The most characteristic and popular rice dish is, of course, the Paella (pronounced "pah-eh-ya). Its gets its name from the wide, cast-iron pan (called a paella), and is cooked with a wide variety of ingredients such as meat, fish, seafood and vegetables. Click here to see how to cook a perfect paella - well, my perfect paella! And for a translation of food items, click here. But there are many other rice dishes such as "Arroz al horno" (oven-baked rice with meat and vegetables), "Arroz a banda" (rice cooked in fish stock) and "Arroz Negra" (rice cooked in fish stock with squid and its ink). In Valenciano restaurants, try "Arros amb fesols i naps" (rice with beans and swede), or fish and seafood dishes including "Cruet de peix" (fish stew), "Suc roig" (fish stock) and fried fish. Rice is not the only dish cooked in the paella pan. Fideua is a type of paella, originally from Gandia, cooked with noodles and fish stock. Other local foods include the equally famous tortilla, which can be cooked with onions, aubergines, peas or asparagus instead of the usual potatoes. Or try the different varieties of coca ("les coques"), which are like small pizzas topped with olive oil with red pepper, tomato, dried anchovy or onion. Traditional sausages and cold meats include: "sobrasada" (sausage with paprika), "butifarra" (pork sausage) or "blanquet". And then there are the tapas...here are just some, and you will find many tapas bars have their own variations. Click here for a list of popular tapas. Valencia is a land of tasty sweetmeats and bakery products. Local desserts are made using typical products of the land, such as almonds, oranges, raisins and figs. There is bread of all sizes and flavours, panquemados (toasted bread), Valencian doughnuts, turnovers, coconut cakes, anisette rolls, almond rosegons, egg-rings for Easter, Mona de pasqua (sweet Easter bread), Epiphany rings, and so on, all available at the many panaderías. As for drinks, a special mention must be made of horchata, made from tiger nuts, which is served as a cool refreshment, and natural orange juice mixed with cava (Catalonian wine similar to champagne) to make a drink known as "Agua de Valencia". |
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