Valencia’s best cuisine

Our city is proud to be the home of one of the world’s most cherished dishes: the paella.

Many conference delegates are intrigued by it, and they aren’t content just to savour it while looking out over the sea, in the Albufera Nature Reserve (the authentic home of rice dishes) or around Valencia’s historic centre and its Roman remains. Often, delegates who stay overnight in Valencia also want to learn how to cook it and discover its best-kept secrets, which only the real purists are ready to reveal. They are looking for an authentic paella experience! Hence Valencia’s top cooking schools feature this type of event in their programmes.

No wonder the Mediterranean diet was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO in 2010.

Alongside our most international dish, Valencia also offers its visitors a whole range of other options:

Other typical rice dishes include arroz a banda, similar to a paella with rice cooked in fish stock, and arroz del senyoret, featuring shelled seafood; seafood ‘fideuà’ – a paella type dish made with pasta; the fish stew known as suquet de peix; typical Valencian tapas such as ‘titaina del Cabanyal’, a well-known dish in the city’s seafaring district whose ingredients are tomato, red and green peppers, pine nuts and tuna; and pickles and salted meat and fish. Turning to drinks, our mistela liquor and the Agua de Valencia cocktail, featuring orange juice and cava, are in the top five while orxata tiger nut milk is another of the favourite beverages of Valencia locals and conference tourists alike.

As for Valencia’s typical confectionery, buñuelos (fried doughnuts), turrones (nougat) and handcrafted ice-creams stand out alongside local sponge cakes, known as coca de llanda.

If you’d like to learn more about our cuisine and the food experiences the city offers, click here or discover them firsthand in our city’s leading restaurants.