Picasso Sent Me?
In Search of the Best Paella in the World

″Retrato de Picasso″ —Pau Gargallo [1913] | MNAC · Barcelona

[photo © BG Street View]

Call it quixotic. This was, after all, the land of Cervantes —and, for that matter, of Picasso. In late January 2009, while in Valencia, Spain's third-largest city, home of paella and a town with a million places to get it, I made a point of searching out an obscure little spot that had been praised by Mark Bittman, New York Times food writer and cast member of the popular PBS gastrotravelogue, "Spain On The Road Again," while he was covering 2007 America's Cup race. I went to down to Picassent —about ten miles south of town and which, for all that it may sound as if it does, has nothing at all to do with Pablo— and to Restaurante L'Alter.

Theirs was not the first of the two paellas I enjoyed while in the area, but it was surely the most home-made and the most authentic. Outside the country, and even in Madrid, Valencia may have the reputation as the birthplace of Spain's best-known culinary export, but experts say the best versions are found outside town, in places like Picassent, near L'Albufera, the marshy, rice-growing region just down the Mediterranean coast from Valencia.

Like Bittman, I also got to visit the kitchen at L'Alter. I spoke with Vicenta —a.k.a. Vice [pronounced "vee say"] if you're part of the Crespo family who are now in the third generation of ownership of the restaurant— who was preparing mine over an orange wood fire. It was a slow, casual afternoon at the lunch-only restaurant, and I was no intrusion.

At the suggestion of the friendly, highly professional waiter, Enrique, whom I'd taken for the owner but who was, he said, a 40-year "employee," I went for the traditional Paella à la Valenciana, made with rabbit, chicken, and two kinds of beans : judías verdes, a.k.a. green beans, and garrafones, large flat beans similar to lima beans. The use of orange wood, the aroma of whose smoke lightly scented the dining room, was another key touch. The birthplace of Spain's most emblematic dish is the Valencia of oranges, too.

Enrique also offered two tips to enjoying Paella no matter what the ingredients : eat it straight out of the pan and go for the socarrat, the caramelized crust that forms underneath the cooked rice at the bottom of the pan.

I enjoyed my meal with a local wine : a 2006 Hoya de Castillo, a young Denominación de Origen white from nearby Bodegas Polo Monleón in the hilly Alto Turia region just northwest of Valencia and up near the source of the Turia River that empties into the sea at Valencia. This refreshing, aromatic, relatively low-alcohol wine made from Merseguera and Macabeo grapes was a perfect companion to my big pan of "rice with things."

Despite the slightly out-of-the-way location, getting to L'Alter proved easy, if just slightly adventurous, thanks to Valencia's light-rail regional metro. Bittman had been driven there by a friend who knew the place. I went alone by train and by foot. By complete coincidence, it turned out that Line 1 —with a stop a block from my hotel near the Feria Valencia convention center— ran right down to Picassent.

The adventure centered on my walk from the Picassent metro station to the restaurant itself. L'Alter is at the northern edge of the small town, but no one at the station had any idea where it was.

Fortunately I'd called the day before and came prepared with a Google Maps print-out of the location, and over the phone, Carmina Crespo had told me their restaurant was about a 15-minute walk from the train.

This proved about exactly right. And a block or two from the station was a small sign pointing the way to L'Alter —matching the orientation of my map— and indicating that the place was located next to a soccer field. All I really had to do was follow the road around. Maybe the folks who work for the metro have never gone much beyond the station.

In the Southern California-like weather, I felt like I was walking through an outpost of LA on a nice winter day. In fact, the trek from and back to the Valencia metro undoubtedly helped burn off some of the calories from lunch. Paella is traditionally made for two, and I'd had to order the obligatory double portion.

My entire meal —salad, a bottle of wine, a liter of Vichy Catalán sparkling water, coffee, the double portion of paella, plus Enrique's advice and the visit to the kitchen— came to less than 40 Euros, or about $50.

If you plan to visit L'Alter, reservations are always a good idea, particularly on weekends and during the week-long annual Fallas Valencianas festivities, which take place in mid-March.

Restaurante L'Alter
Camino Juliet, 3
46220 Picassent
Comunitat Valenciana
España
tel : +34.96.123.05.37

Links

• L'Alter website : http://www.restaurantlalter.com/
• Bittman article : http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/travel/08Bite.html
• Las Provincias article [Spanish] in re Bittman's visit to L'Alter : http://www.lasprovincias.es/valencia/20080307/local/vida-ocio/york-times-saborea-valencia-200803071104.html
• Official site [in English] for Fallas de Valencia from the Communitat Valencia : http://fallas.comunitatvalenciana.com/fallas-2009.htm