Tortilla de patatas: A Classic Spanish Dish

If you haven't already visited her blog, Chic Soufflé regularly posts some delicious recipes there. It'll make you hungry to read it! They are mostly sweets and desserts, but there are also some savories and drinks recipes, too. (I'm still licking my lips over her recent "Caramelized Garlic Tart"! Mmm, garlic! And some say, "¡España huele a ajo!") There are few things more Spanish than the Spanish omelette, so I've invited her to share her recipe here along with tips and thoughts on this quintessentially Spanish dish.

"I <3 tortilla de patatas" via Kukuxumusu

Tortilla de patatas, tortilla española, Spanish omelette… different names for such a delicious and humble dish, and yet somehow this simple staple of Spanish cuisine often gets misrepresented in US recipes. It’s as if they want to make what is essentially a super easy combination of—a very few—ingredients into something complicated. But the truth is that a Spanish omelette does not need to be a complicated affair, and that’s the beauty of it. This is no paella. This is a dish you can make pretty much in ANY country, anytime, easily, and with very few basic ingredients. You don’t even need olive oil (that’s right, I said it!) Finding potatoes, eggs, and onion (optional) shouldn’t be hard in most parts of the world, and you only need a decent nonstick pan to cook it.

Now, just like with every classic staple recipe in any cuisine, everyone has a different take on it. I mean, I learned my tortilla de patatas from my mom, and our versions don’t even taste that similar! If you have eaten it in Spain and are a fan of this potato-rich goodness, you’ll certainly have noticed the differences. More or less gooey interior, smaller or bigger diced potatoes, onion or no onion, fatter or thinner…I love them all.

On the recommendation of a friend and fellow blogger,
we tried these enormous, delicious tortillas at Bar Santos, Córdoba

Despite being a simple dish, there are a few things you MUST know to perfect a classic tortilla de patatas:

• First of all, you do not need to waste a “quart of olive oil” to cook it. Many people make it with sunflower oil (great for deep-frying and used often in Spain—it’s our canola oil), and if you do use nice olive oil, know that after you remove the fried potatoes you shouldn’t discard it. It is totally fine to reuse it, and it will be infused with a nice potato flavor.

• Pick the right potato. Those flavorless potatoes you find in some supermarkets do not do it justice. You want tasty potatoes (Russet works great), because it is the main ingredient, after all.

• There’s a great trick for turning the tortilla that always works. You just need two dinner plates that are a little bigger than the pan you’re using. The rest is not that complicated (see below.)

• Thicker and smaller is better than thin and big. In my experience, it’s always better two use a smaller pan and make a thick tortilla (but no more than 2 inches, or it gets complicated). A thicker tortilla tastes better, looks better, and is easier to handle.

• The way the potatoes are chopped is probably the biggest difference you’ll find among recipes. Some people like it in small cubes, small pieces, little sticks, big chunks…we all have our favorite style. 

• The texture of the tortilla can be quite different depending on where you try it, but it should never be dry! I noticed that in Madrid (in my opinion, one of the best cities to eat tortilla) they like it very, very gooey in the middle. In Valencia, however, they usually cook it thoroughly until the middle is set. The way I make it is leaving it a little gooey on the inside, but not runny. It’s a matter of how long you cook it, so you can experiment with that and see what you prefer.

• It’s a well-know fact that tortilla de patatas tastes awesome leftover, so don’t be afraid to make too much! :)

¿Qué es para usted una tortilla? In our house, we eat both types of homemade tortillas!

Ready to make a tortilla de patatas?

Here’s my recipe, which I have been using for over 10 years. Whenever I’ve made variations, I’ve always come back to the basics because it tasted better. With tortilla de patatas it’s just best to keep it simple!

Ingredients

1 big potato

3 or 4 eggs

half an onion (optional)

sunflower or canola oil for frying (or olive oil, which you can reuse)

a pinch of salt

1. Peel and chop the potato. This is what I like to do: I grab a small slicing knife and cut uneven chunks while rotating the potato. I feel these bigger chunks give it a more interesting texture, but you can cut it differently and just adjust the cooking depending on the size. If you choose to add onion, chop it thinly.

2. Fill an 8-inch pan (20 cm) with oil (enough to cover the potatoes.) Heat up until the oil is very hot and add the potatoes. If you’re using onion, add it now as well. Cover with a lid to avoid splatter mess. Fry until the potatoes are cooked through, but not crunchy. They should look pale. Remember, they will cook a bit longer with the egg.

3. While the potatoes are frying, crack the eggs in a medium bowl and beat with a fork. Add a pinch of salt.

4. Using a slotted spoon, remove the potatoes (and onion) and put them in the bowl with the egg. Mix with the fork.

5. Unless you’re using olive oil, discard most of the oil from the pan, leaving only about one spoonful to cook the tortilla. Turn the heat to medium-low and add the egg and potato mix. Cover with the lid. When the tortilla is set around the edges but still gooey in the middle, it’s time to do “the plate trick”. Slide the tortilla onto one of the plates (carefully detaching the sides with a spatula, if needed). Put the other plate on top to cover (the plates must match sizes) and quickly flip the plates. Now your tortilla is flipped and you can slide it onto the pan with the help of a spatula to drag any potato pieces left behind.

The "transfer" doesn't have to be seamless to lead to a shapely final product.

6. Cook uncovered for a few more minutes, only until the bottom settles. If you like it gooey in the middle, then it won’t take very long to cook, but it will always depends on the thickness of the tortilla, so just watch out to get that perfect texture. Whatever you like will be the best recipe you can always use. :)

Where did you try your favorite tortilla de patatas? Have any cooking tips of 

your own to add? Post your comments here. They are welcome!

—Chic Soufflé

Guest Post: "Horchata de Chufa" (a.k.a. "Orxata de Xufa") – Valencia’s Liquid Gold!

There are few things more Valencian than horchata. Which was why at some point I had intended to blog about it. That is, until I met Neima Briggs, a fellow Austinite (i.e. from Austin, Texas) and recent Fulbright fellow to Valencia, but most important, perhaps the world's biggest chufa fan. Here is a guy who practically bleeds horchata. I was so impressed with his personal passion for the topic that I invited him to write an entry on it himself. Neima first came to Spain (to San Sebastian-Donostia in the Basque Country) back in 2009. But he returned to the horchata heartland, Valencia, in 2011-2012 on a Fulbright Research Grant to study —no, not horchata— antibiotic resistance development in bacteria residing in the gastrointestinal tract of humans, and how that resistance transfers between mother and infant. But he still found time while he was here to explore all aspects of Valencia's most famous refreshment. Below he provides you with a window into the long history and local love of the chufa, and even his own recipe! Following his year here, he will return to the United States to begin his studies on an MD/PhD at the University of Texas School of Medicine at Houston.

Two large glasses of horchata without sugar (left) and
horchata granizada (right), which has a frozen slushy
consistency. The dessert shown is a tart made with a
cream from tigernuts.

From corner vendors to centuries old horchatería’s, it’s hard to walk anywhere in Valencia on a warm summer’s day and not be tempted to indulge in the cold, sweet horchata de chufa ("orxata de xufa" in Valenciano).

It is unknown precisely when Valencianos first started squeezing the milk from the tigernut ("chufa"), but written records have accounts of the drink existing as early as the end of the first millennia during the Muslim occupation of Spain. The name orxata, is believed to derive from the Valenciano word ordiata, ordi meaning barley in Latin. However, ask a local vendor at an horchatería in Valencia and chances are they will tell you the local folk story of its origin.  It is said that when James I of Aragon (a.k.a. Jaume I) came to the Kingdom of Valencia to help solidify relations before the impending Muslim invasion, he was approached in Alboraya (a small town on the outskirts of the modern Valencia capital city) by a small girl carrying the drink. After sipping the drink, he told the child, "Açò és or, xata!" ("That's gold, darling!"). Whether or not this is the true etymology of the word, for locals the drink is as precious as gold.

Shown here is the tigernut plant
(photo from tigernut.com),
a small tuber plant with the tigernut
itself growing in the ground. Harvested
between April and September every
year, fields and fields of it can be seen
on the northern outskirts of Valencia.

On average 10mm long, tigernuts are small tubers that make great snacks, but are predominately grown to make horchata. My Valencian coworkers, themselves health scientist and doctors, have told me on numerous occasions about the health benefits of the tigernuts. High in minerals such as Phosphorous, Potassium and Vitamins E and C, tigernuts are currently under study for health benefits with improving blood circulation and prevention of heart attacks. The high fiber content combined with the highly soluble glucose content have many Valencian doctors recommending the drink to help reduce the risk of colon cancer and to help with normal day digestion. [Editorial note: If you are curious to read more about the Valencia "chufa" denomination of origen standards, click here.]

A name familiar throughout most of Latin American, up into the southern United States, horchata exists in many forms. Known as horchata de arroz (white rice) to Americans and Mexicans, although similarly prepared, the milk extraction from rice creates its own distinct flavor. The source of the milk varies greatly worldwide, ranging from ground almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley, or tigernuts. To make local varieties even more distinctive, spices and flavors are commonly added, including an 18 herb infusion in Ecuador, cocoa and nutmeg in El Salvador and jicaro seeds and spices in Nicaragua and Honduras.

Basket of cleaned tigernuts made available for consumption for patrons at Horchatería Daniel.
Sold in small packs for individual consumption or in larger bags for making horchata.

Given the regional craze for all things chufa, there is naturally
a local organic beer brewed from the tigernut, too.

Exterior photo of Horchatería Daniel from Hola Valencia

You can find horchaterías (sit-downs dedicated to making fresh horchata) all over Valencia. The most famous among the locals is Horchatería Daniel, located in the heart and birthplace of horchata, Alboraya on aptly named Avinguda de l’Orxata (right next to the Machado metro exit on the red Line 3). [Editorial note: the people of Alboraya even jokingly call each other "chuferos".] Many Valencian city locals will flock with the family to this small town north of the city on a lazy Sunday afternoon to drink various concoctions Horchatería Daniel makes using horchata – including with coffee, without sugar for diabetics and non-sweet lovers, and different flavors of ice cream - and desserts made of chocolate and sometimes the tigernut, too! A traditional snack to have with the ice-cold horchata is fartons, a light pastry with a light glazing on top or powder sugar. (Don’t be surprised to see everyone around dunking their fartons into the horchata!) While you’re out in Alboraya be sure to walk along Avinguda de l’Orxata to the Museum of Horchata! 

Two traditional glasses of horchata with fartons (pastries in between the horchata) and
churros (fried bread with sugar on top), the latter of which is usually eaten with thick melted chocolate.
A delicious and filling Valencian treat at Horchatería de Santa Catalina!

Horchatería de Santa Catalina: Beautiful and typically Valencian hand-painted tiles encompass
horchata drinkers as they enjoy it inside one of Valencia's favorite establishments.

Its iconic exterior façade.

Two other equally worthy establishments where you can also try horchata are right in the cultural heart of Valencia in the Plaza de la Reina. The first, Horchatería de Santa Catalina is an establishment with over two hundred years of horchata-making tradition and its history encompasses you, literally. With ornate carvings in the ceilings on the second floor and beautiful hand-painted tile work in the entrance and walls, the building is as much of a treat as their incredible horchata. Although the choices are limited compared to Horchatería Daniel, the horchata and fartons are nothing short of perfection on a Valencian hot summer day. Right across the walkway is Horchatería El Siglo, another horchatería with two hundred years of tradition, but smaller in size. Worth a visit for the horchata alone, Horchatería El Siglo also has nice outdoor seating, perfect for a sunny day.

The Falla de Santa Catalina even included a miniature rendition
of the Horchatería El Siglo in its 2012 falla.

So now that you are addicted to Valencia’s liquid gold, you'll want to know how you can get more when you go home. Luckily, bottled horchata is sold all around Spain in grocery stores. Before you leave Valencia, you might also consider the fact that many horchaterías (and at the airport) sell a condensed horchata, so at home you can turn a one liter bottle into five liters worth of delicious enjoyment. Do you think bottled horchata is just not the same as that overwhelmingly delicious fresh-made hortchata? For those returning to the United States or anywhere in Europe, there is a Spanish food distributor LaTienda.com where you can order food to fill all your Spanish cravings (no need to stuff your suitcase with tigernuts!). They sell a bottled brand of horchata, Chufi.

Neima Briggs, today's guest author, showing his love of Valencia
at Sevilla's Plaza de España

That said, I have found making the horchata myself fun and without question well worth the effort. At $18 a bag, you can treat yourself to four liters of horchata spread out over the course of months. Although once made the horchata will go bad after a week, the nuts stay good for two years when placed in a well-ventilated dark space (best in a dry portion of the refrigerator). The recipe is quite simple and, building from years of practice, I have include my recipe below for those adventurous enough to try it. If you are interested, click the link below and keep reading...

Paella Valenciana: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

I love this mural by Valencian street-artist Escif,
featuring paella valenciana's two main meats,
chicken and rabbit.

As I've mentioned in a previous blog entry, I've grown to acquire the Valencians' sense of pride as well as profound irritation with all the misunderstanding out there surrounding this region's signature rice dishes, and above all, paella valenciana. I recently contributed a series of entries on my mother-in-law's classic paella valenciana recipe to The Spain Scoop, and in the process discovered some egregious examples of "paella valenciana" (in scare quotes) floating around out there in the blogosphere and worldwide web.

Consider this post my effort to clear up the record and call out some erroneous ideas out there about paella, what's in it, and where it's from...

• The Good:

It's my blog, so you'll have to forgive my pretension for listing  my mother-in-law's version here among the good versions of paella valenciana, but her recipe really is great, and follows the guidelines of the recent informal denominación de origen conferred on paella valenciana. If you haven't already, I encourage you to take a moment and review those three entries at The Spain Scoop:

My mother-in-law makes paella valenciana like a pro.

1) "How To Make My Mother-in-law's Valencian Paella – Part 1": In part 1, I outline the basic components of the dish, listing the ingredients you will need while sketching out some of the common misconceptions about the dish and what is used to prepare it.

To quote one newspaper, "El ADN del plato autóctono" [The DNA of the native plate (paella valenciana)] is: Aceite [Vegetable oil], Pollo [Chicken], Conejo [Rabbit], "Ferraura" (bajoqueta) [a local green bean], "Garrafó" [a local white bean], Tomate, Agua [Water], Sal [Salt], Azafrán [Safron], Arroz [the local Valencian rice]"

2) "How To Make My Mother-in-law's Valencian Paella – Part 2": This second entry is probably the most useful of the three – where I layout instructions on how to prepare and cook all the ingredients, to actually make a paella valenciana.

3) "How To Make My Mother-in-law's Paella Valenciana – Part 3": And here I wrap it up by describing how it is served, and how Valencian's love the crusted burnt layer of rice at the bottom of the paella pan, known as "socarrat".

Mmmmmm... socarrat!

I've seen a few expats and Americans who have managed to accurately recreate this dish, so you don't have to be a card-carrying Valencian to do so. Fellow Valencia expat blogger, Leftbanker, posted a picture of what is undeniably authentic paella valenciana on his blog not long ago. (He particularly won me over with this hilarious rant about the English-speaker's tendency to mispronounce "paella".) My Kitchen in Spain, Janet Mendel's fun culinary blog, creatively plays around with the paella recipe on her blog, though she's careful never to mislabel it "paella valenciana", so I don't hold it against her. And Mendel says that you can find the authentic recipe for paella valenciana in her book, My Kitchen in Spain (2002). (I'll have to trust her, since I don't own it. Hint, hint, Janet. Gift idea?)

However, it is very hard to make the _real_ paella valenciana well if you live outside of Spain, since the fresh staples that form the base of this dish aren't grown outside the Valencian province.

Judging by appearances, Leftbanker's paella looked pretty "auténtica" to me.

The real secret to making an excellent paella valenciana is visiting or living in
Valencia where you have access to all the fresh regional ingredients,
at places like this, Valencia's fantastic Mercat Central.

I'm not lying when I say that I don't mind people having a little fun with paella-making.
One of my longtime favorite Valencia bloggers, Paella de Kimchi, made this Valencia-Korea
fusion paella de kimchi. Experimental fun aside, you can tell from this recipe that these
bloggers really know their stuff when it comes to preparing a paella, traditional or not.

• The Bad:

But in preparing blog entries on paella and Valencian rice dishes I have begun to uncover what I believe are the two main sources of many of the erroneous "paellas valencianas" circulating online and especially among the foreign expats and tourists.

Source of confusion 1: An easy tip off as to whether they've messed up the paella recipe. There is no traditional paella (valenciana or otherwise) which has any of the ingredients found in that other classic Valencian rice dish, arroz al horno, such as: costillas de cerdo (pork ribs... or really any kind of pork), morcilla, potato, garlic, chickpeas. If you find any of these ingredients call the local officials immediately you know that the chef is dazed and confused about the traditions of paella-making.

Lesson: Just because it's paella, it's traditional, and it's traditionally from Valencia, doesn't mean it's traditional "paella valenciana". I think a lot of people are confusing the ingredients which appear in other traditional Valencian rice dishes with fair-game paella ingredients, and are maybe also thinking that paella de marisco, a very traditional Valencian paella, is _the_ "paella valenciana"... which it is not.

Never confuse arroz al horno with paella, much less paella valenciana. This _other_ typical Valencian
rice dish is made with a "cazuela" clay pot, and _does_ have pork ribs and chickpeas in it. Paella does not.

"La corrucion, como la paella en ningun sitio, se hace como en Valencia." Translated,
ignoring spelling errors: "Corruption, like paella, in no place do they make it like in Valencia."

Source of confusion 2: Outside the Valencian province, some other paellas have appeared which day-tripping tourists to Spain have understandably taken to be the "auténtico" thing, but which are also far from traditional Valencian dishes. For any fans of "paella mixta" (Madrid's mixed meat, both seafood and chicken, version of the paella dish), or to those of you from Castellón who want to put red pepper in your paella, fine! Do it! Just don't call it "paella valenciana," which it is not. I'm a believer in culinary innovation (here I depart ways with many of my more hardcore Valencian readers), but these bastardizations variations on Valencia's paellas would turn the nose of any Valencian.

Lesson: Paella, and particularly paella valenciana, is from the Valencian Province, not Catalonia, not Castellón or Alicante, in a way, not even "from Spain". And it is a simple dish, without bells and whistles. If you eat or make any other kind, be polite to Valencian pride and heritage and call it something else.

"Paella mixta," the scourge of Valencia pride. This blogger, Chow Times, faced two common pitfalls of
eating paella outside of Valencia (in this case in Barcelona): 1) encountering this untraditional
"mixed" paella, which blends chicken meat with shellfish, bizarre!, a combination that would offend
any Valencian, and 2) soggy rice. (Noooooooo!) Reading this entry broke my heart,
when they wrote, "all Chinese don’t like soggy rice". Well, when it's paella, neither do Valencians!

This paella, with red peppers, presents a more delicate political problem. This is a
traditional paella recipe in Castellón. It is not "paella valenciana", but since Castellón
is in the Comunidad Valenciana, many from this region were upset when the official
paella valenciana recipe excluded red peppers. All I can say to them is, again,
there is a difference between the recipe paella valenciana and paella "from Valencia"!

I'm a bit mystified by this "Paella catalana". For starters, there is no traditional dish in Spain
called "paella catalana". Second, judging from the recipes listed at the link where I found this
photo, these are variations on paella de marisco (one of many Valencian paellas). Third,
this kind of lobster (bogavante) is not traditionally put in paella, but rather arroz meloso or arroz caldoso.

• The Ugly:

But where things get ugly is the use of the term "paella valenciana" to sell any and every kind of fried rice dish abroad. One point of confusion is that there is a "paella caribeña" recipe floating out there. I don't know where it was originally from, or how traditional it is, but it is often sold in the States with the title "Spanish paella", which it is not. Why? Well, first and foremost because it uses regular white rice. And this leads to the other serious infraction in the States: the mistaken idea that making "Spanish fried rice" or "saffron rice" is all it takes to call something "paella". No! You need to use the special Valencian round-grain rice to make it (i.e. arroz bomba, as in 'Arroz de Valencia' or even the Murcian Calasparra). (And, no, you can't just substitute the completely different Italian Arborio rice, used in risotto!) Perhaps you once had the excuse in the States that it was hard to find "arroz bomba", but with LaTienda.com such is no longer the case.

From what I've seen in the States and online, paella caribeña appears to be
a seafood-style fried rice dish with peas. But the two things which mark it as
_very_ un-Valencian: 1) it is usually loaded with ingredients, drowning out the rice
and simplicity, and 2) it uses long-grain rice instead of the special round Spanish variety.

Socarrat's peculiar paella menu.

As I said at the start, in my online searches I ran across a lot of tragically hilarious faux pas paellas of fancy U.S. restaurants or catering services claiming to sell "paella valenciana" and yet even the most cursory glance can tell you it was a serious screw up of the region's most famous dish. For example, the fancy New York City "paella bar" (whatever that is) called Socarrat in Chelsea lists some bizarre paellas on its menu. Again, I have no complaints about mixing it up and innovating, so I was keeping an open-minded about them as I read their menu (though I've never heard of eggplant in a paella). Until I saw it, the "Valenciana"... with pork ribs and asparagus. Yikes!

And I'm not sure what to say to well-meaning culinary bloggers who, in their misinformation and sloppiness, put up recipes for "Paella Valencia" with chorizo in it, or ones that put up a correct meat recipe for "Paella Valenciana" but for some reason post a picture of paella de marisco (?). It is thanks to these many bloggers and recipe posters that a google image search of "paella valenciana" turns up a lot of junk false, baroque misrepresentations of Valencia's simple, humble dish.

Lesson: In Valencia, where people eat paella all the time, there is a kind of unspoken law of minimalism, put the minimal amount of ingredients to give it a flavor, but don't cover the pan edge to edge with ingredients. The idea is not to crowd out the rice when you're adding ingredients, because the rice is the protagonist.

But do you wanna get a Valencian _really_ mad? Point them to this American (San Diego based) catering website: Paella Valenciana, Paella Catering You Can Trust. Yes, folks! The company that has managed to corner the online domain name for "paella valenciana dot com" is selling the world's biggest fake for paella valenciana!!! Here I quote for you the caption under their menu entry for the dish:

Paella Valenciana is a very popular succulent mix of paella with fresh chicken, sea-food and vegetables. You can customize your paella choice with your choice of shrimp, calamari, mussels, clams, scallops, crab claws, fish and lobster. 

Where does one start when tearing apart critiquing this? (Well, with the obvious, that the dish doesn't have sea-food in it.) But I'm confused by what they mean when they say paella valenciana is a mix of paella _with_ those ingredients. Paella _is_ those ingredients, plus rice and some other things. And how American of them is it to offer tailor-made paellas valencianas. Don't consider this a gripe. I'm just howling with laughter at the utter disregard Americans can give to European traditions and importance placed on authenticity, even as they are capitalizing off the mystique of European traditions and history.

You guys call this "Paella Valenciana"!!! Are you kidding me?
How did you get the license for this domain name?

So let's making this shaming process an official game. I hereby offer you the "Paella Hall of Shame". If you find a picture, recipe, restaurant, or website online that is perpetuating these preposterous paellas, make a comment here with a linkback to it. In turn, if you are one of the shamed and have changed your evil ways, post here, and I promise I will remove the link or mention of you.

***UPDATE: I've discovered a whole community of people living in Madrid who are annoyed with all these poser paellas out there... and they've started a web project calling them out! Check out La Comunidad de la Paella if you're looking for a good place to have paella in Spain's capital, because there aren't as many as you would think!***

The Paella Hall of Shame:
• How to cook Paella - Gordon Ramsay Recipe [finder credits to Leftbanker]
• Paella Valenciana, Paella Catering You Can Trust (San Diego, U.S.A.)
• Socarrat Paella Bar (NYC, U.S.A.)
• LaPaella.co.uk (Aberdeen, U.K.) [Again, claims prime URL real estate but then confuse paella mixta with "paella valenciana"... And _broccoli_ in the vegetable paella? I've never heard of that. Unwitting finder credits to GoSpain.About.Com on its "History of Paella" entry]
• Antonio Banderas's Paella [which in 2011 caused a scandal in Valencia for its use of chorizo, among other very unorthodox ingredients] (Here on Univisión he says the secret to paella is "el sofrito", but then lists some bizarre ingredients ... Though in fairness, he states here in a Brazilian show that "Es la paella mía" and not the "valenciana" ... judging from his accounts, it's a paella mixta with substitutions that apparently Banderas finds in Chinatown markets.)
• Awesome 1960s German TV program sings how to make "Paella de Valencia" a.k.a. "paella valenciana"... I can't even count the number of mistakes in their recipe. But who cares? The song is priceless!!!
...

Eating in Season: Valencia Oranges!

So back home, when I mention Valencia, probably the first thing people say to me is, "Oranges!" Yes, Valencia is the land of oranges ("naranjas"), and right now (late December through early February) oranges are in season. Which means that I've been enjoying, near daily, the world's most delicious fresh-squeezed orange juice with my breakfast, and we've been eating fresh oranges in a variety of forms for dessert. Thus, I'm using this very iconic Valencian product to inaugurate my series on "eating in season," a practice that is very Spanish and yet somehow lost to time and globalization in the United States but waiting for a good comeback.

It's funny. The idea that oranges are a seasonal fruit, and much less a winter fruit is probably extinct now in the States. If anything, people probably hit the highly-processed Florida orange juice even heavier in the spring and summer (bikini diet season). And, indeed, as I will explain in a moment, it is because of the Valencian orange that many of you will eat table fruit oranges more in the summer, too. Yet not long ago, or not long ago by historians' standards, as in just over a century ago, an orange in many parts of the U.S. was a special treat associated with the holiday season. In my family, for example, we are very proud of a very old diary we have that was written by my grandfather's grandfather (my great, great, great grandfather? very great, needless to say). He lived a fascinating life, having grown up partly in Japan where his father went as a missionary just after the country (re)opened to the West in the 1870s. But there is a lovely passage that he wrote as a boy growing up in Indiana, where he mentions his excitement at getting a fresh orange around Christmas time. I believe it was even a common gift or stocking stuffer back in the day. (Imagine! Oranges special enough to be a gift.) I think of it every time the first batch of this season's local oranges appear in supermarkets mid December.

My Spanish family is so Valencian that we haven't even had to buy oranges yet this season.
These organic oranges were gifted to my father-in-law from a producer, who also got a box from a friend
 of his that has a family orchard, plus he got a third box from his employer as a Christmas gift!

Spaniards have no doubts about how Valencian oranges are.
This old ad encouraging foreigners to "Eat more Spanish fruits"
features a woman dressed in very Valencian fallera attire.

"Fruta, hija del sol, fuente de salud"
[Fruit, daughter of the sun,
source of health]

So now I'm going to follow that with a big letdown for all you Hispanophile Americans. When you find "Valencian Oranges" in the States, chances are they are _not_ from Spain, much less Valencia. Thus the title "Valencia Oranges," and not "Valencian" for this post. This is because the Valencian oranges you find in your supermarket are named for the variety of orange and not the location where they were cultivated. Most oranges in the States come from California (though increasingly shifting southward to Mexico), Florida (which specializes more in the thin-skinned juicing oranges), or Brazil. Spanish-grown oranges largely get marketed only within Europe. This Valencian variety, according to my very cursory investigations, was a hybrid first developed in southern California in the late 19th century, and was prized because it ripened off-season, so to speak, which is to say it was ready to be eaten later, in the summer, instead of in the winter and spring. Many a southern California town and region was marked by this discovery, such as Valencia, California (just outside of Los Angeles) and "Orange County" (a.k.a. The O.C.). But don't be too disappointed. This variety of orange probably does have its roots in the Iberian peninsula, since it was found to be very similar to oranges grown in Portugal, and likely originally from the Valencia region. Also, in recent years there are a lot of clemetines ("clementinas") in the U.S. arriving from Spain (usually around December), which most certainly would be coming from the Valencian region.

Fruits of Natural Advantage: California and Valencia, which landscape is which?
Traveling through L'Horta de València can feel like traveling through southern California.
(Answer key: California is on the left, Valencia on the right.)

California, a land made in Spain's Valencia's image?: This old ad celebrating
the Orange County's pastoral self-fashioning could easily have been Valencia, too.

This Valencia ad from the early 20th century illustrated the citrus industry's global ambitions:
"Son deseadas en todo el mundo." (They are desired all over the world.) "Eat more
Spanish fruits." [Even back then you can see the non-native English errors: "fruits" in plural.]

Okay, so that brief American history of agriculture detour aside, Valencia is a _major_ orange obsessed producing region. (Though like California-Mexico, much of the production in Spain is shifting south to Morocco.) The streets are literally paved with gold orange trees. (Guiri alert!: Don't be a guiri and try to pick this fruit. The orange trees that line the streets have decorative oranges, which are nearly inedible.) You can find oranges in the tile art (azulejos) iconography all throughout the city. And after the silk trade's decline, following its height in the 15th and 16th centuries, the citrus industry was probably one of the major backbone industries of the region that maintained Valencia's importance economically as a port city, especially around the turn of the twentieth century when the marketing of such fresh fruit boomed in the U.S. and Europe (following advances in transportation and preservation, which overcame the perishability challenges of before). And, again, I'm eternally grateful to the ill-conceived association Americans have between oranges and Valencia, since it provides me a starting point when talking about my otherwise neglected adopted Spanish city.

Oranges adorn Valencia's main train station, Estación del Norte, which is a must-visit for tourists.

The train station recently added this beautiful tile room, which displays
pastoral imagery typical of the Valencia region including orange groves.

There are also oranges all over the walls of Valencia's Mercat Central,
another modern-style building whose fruit stands will most certainly carry oranges

There are orange trees ("naranjos", with an "o" for the tree, as opposed to ending in an "a" for the fruit),
all over the city, and especially along the avenues. Lovely, except in February when there are
also mushed oranges all over the ground.

Orange, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. If you ever try a fresh Valencia orange in season here, you'll understand the local pride, and how it is that oranges and orange juice find their way into the many novel local dishes and drinks here. First, I'm going to let you all in on a big local secret: agua de Valencia. Remember when I wrote that Valencians regularly say that the water in Valencia isn't good for anything except making paella? Well maybe that's why "agua de Valencia" here isn't water. It's a local cocktail which loosely resembles a mimosa, made of orange juice, cava, and a couple of liquors. (This cocktail is probably the exception to the rule that there are very, very few local cocktails in Spain. Very, very few. Spain, in general, does not have a cocktail culture.) It was invented in the late 1950s by Constante Gil at the Bar Café Madrid, what was in its day a lively and culturally important hub in the old center of Valencia. These days, you are more likely to see people here who are out for a drink sharing a pitcher ("jarra") of agua de Valencia than of sangría, and I highly recommend you order some when you visit.

The most common thing is to order a "jarra" of agua de Valencia with a group of friends.

The Plaza de Negrito, shown here in El Carmen of Valencia,
is my favorite place to sit out and drink agua de Valencia with friends.

When they daylight hours get short, there's
nothing like the taste of fresh-squeezed OJ

Valencians, however, are more likely to be enjoying the season of fresh oranges in more mundane ways. My wife and I got the world's best house-warming gift from her parents when we moved into our current place: an electric juicer. I think it's a must-have kitchen utility here in Valencia in the winter, facilitating that daily orange juice with breakfast. But you can also have oranges for dessert. My mother-in-law cuts up oranges and serves them with honey on top (and sometimes pollen sprinkled over it), which makes for a delicious, simple and healthy dessert. Or you can cover it with melted chocolate, like in this fancier and mouth-watering dessert shown below, and whose recipe you can find here?

Sliced fresh orange with honey on top and pollen sprinkled over it.

And anything, but especially fresh Valencia oranges,
tastes better with melted chocolate over it.

So there you have it. Oranges. One more reason why life in Valencia is sweet!