Paella Valenciana: The Dish That Everyone Gets Wrong

Authentic paella valenciana — from the rice paddies of the Albufera lagoon outside Valencia — contains rabbit, chicken, snails, green beans (ferradura and garrofón/lima beans), saffron, rosemary, and rice (Bomba or Calasparra). It does NOT contain chorizo, seafood, peas, or bell peppers. The seafood version (paella de mariscos) is a separate dish. Mixing meat and seafood in one paella is an abomination to any Valencian. The dish is named after the pan — a wide, shallow, thin-bottomed steel pan that maximises the surface area of rice exposed to heat, producing the socarrat: the caramelised, crispy layer of rice on the bottom that is the single most prized element of any paella.

• West African jollof rice (one-pot rice with flavoured liquid — same structural concept, same bottom-crust prize: the jollof "party rice" bottom is the Nigerian socarrat), Persian tahdig (crispy bottom