-------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "Minton, Mark" <mmin...@nmhu.edu> > I like Mary Thiesse's friend's comment: > >>If you serve Paella on a piece of bread to a Spaniard, and you tell them > >>that > is paella they would probably leave the table.
The first paella I ever actually saw was served on (in) a large (20-inch diameter) pizza dough sorta flat bread turned up nearly 2 inches (well, maybe 1-1/2") at the edges (like a Conans deep dish pizza) and that filled with the yellow rice which was topped with the sea food and vegie mixture--including 2 or 3 of what looked like crawfish, probably some sorta small lobster--and mollusks of several sorts still in shell. Eating it was a rather messy proposition (like fried chicken or shrimp or crabs) as it required a lot of food fondling prepatory to actual eating. The whole flat bread/edible pan thing could well have been another variation on the free-form nature of paella in the first place. I will admit that I think no paella I've had since has had the bread bottom--and I have noted that and wondered why not. But the bread bottom certainly made it handier to deal with and eat, sorta like a pizza--as opposed to a loose, gloppy rice & food mixture, I mean. My only complaint was the lack of chopped green chiles or salsa picante to take it over the edge to the next dimension of flavor. --Ediger --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
