But every time I dig into one, I get a feeling that it could have been, should have been, a food of my childhood. It’s a close cousin of zarzuela and bouillabaisse, and a distant relative of macaroni and cheese. Paella is ultimately a casserole, one of the greatest casseroles in the history of global cuisine. And though our local Spanish – mostly from Mexico, Central and South America – isn’t exactly the same, it’s close enough for us to share a language as well.Īnd, I should add, we certainly do love one-pot cooking. Decidedly not enough when you consider that we share a climate with Spain, along with a passion for small dishes (tapas!) and seafood. Many have come, and many have gone – La Masia and Toledo on the Westside, Tasca in Hollywood, Cava near the Beverly Center, La Paella on San Vicente, Taberna Arros and Bar Pintxo in Santa Monica, along with Racion in Pasadena.Īnd yet, there is Spanish cooking to be found in SoCal. That said, I do have to add that the history of Spanish restaurants here in SoCal is not pretty. I’ve become a full-fledged, card-carrying pescatarian in my old age. And anyway, any excuse for gobbling an abundance of shrimp, crab, scallops, lobster, cod and what have you is much appreciated. But for me, at least, seafood makes paella so much more of a meal. Along with National Peanut Butter Day, National Cheese Doodle Day and National Meatball Day, we’ve got National Crabmeat Day, National Baked Scallop Day, National Lobster Newburg Day, National Clams on the Halfshell Day – and, on March 27, National Paella Day.Īnd, yes, I know that paella doesn’t have to include seafood to be paella it’s named for the flat metal pan with two handles in which it’s cooked. Paella is just one of many foods from the sea honored with special days in March – this may be the most aquatic month of the year. By the 15th century, it had become such a staple that it was the standard lunchtime meal for farm laborers, cooked in great pans over open fires, flavored with herbs and spices, with added ingredients like tomatoes and onions, saffron the pepper, rabbit and duck, and, closer to the ocean, seafood. That’s where it dates back to the 10th century, when the Moors of Spain began cultivating rice. And as is true of so many of our favorite dishes, paella has roots deep in history – in this case, in the history of the Iberian Peninsula. Her love of paella – a dish named for the pan in which it’s served – has continued, and perhaps even thrived. Or, at least, she did by that time, my wife and I had moved on to zarzuela and fideo and any number of other dishes. During five nights in Barcelona, we had another five paellas. And she obsessed very well.ĭuring five nights in Madrid, we went to five different restaurants famed for their paella. She was captivated as well with sandwiches of jamón serrano on bocadillo bread, served at a chain wonderfully called Museo del Jamón. I still definitely recommend ChainDive to curious players, despite all that.During a family trip to Spain, my daughter developed an obsession with paella. And there are times when the game seems incredibly unfair, when you're desperately trying to find a dot to hook onto or when you fall into the abyss at the bottom of some stages with seemingly no way back up. Result in a huge feeling of relief and satisfaction, it is still incredibly frustrating until the "trick" of each stage clicks in your head. The big problem with the game in general though, is the difficulty level. A stage with no floor that has the player swinging from rooftop to rooftop, a stage with an incredibly high tower that must be climbed while fending off attacks, a stage exploring a cave to fin switches, and so on.Īll these stages are a ton of fun to play, and the variety ensures that the game doesn't outstay its welcome. But the stages that follow are all totally different. The first stage seems like a stage from any other mid-00s action game, with the added gimmick of the lasso: you travel from left to right defeating enemies on the way to the end of the stage. The genius of the game is that it uses these small ingedients to make every stage different to the last. There are also enemies, who are defeated by first being frozen by your double-bladed weapon, and then smashed, by attaching the lasso to the frozen enemy and smashing into them. From the green dots littered around each stage.
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