Valencia has a gorgeous landscape and a coastline that combines the culinary products of the garden and the mountain. There are many annual events about Mediterranean cuisine in this corner of the Mediterranean, including:

Pego, Marjal, Denia
                                                                          Coast of Valencia

1. Valencia culinary meeting

Gastronomic days are time to meet, taste and participate at a good price of the best cuisine on the market hand in hand with the most expert chefs.

In Valencia the valencia culinary meeting is celebrated in February with encounters between two renowned chefs, one international and another local to show their experience in a kitchen of the garden, the pantry, the land, the vegetables, the sea and the mountain.

Many restaurants known by locals have a surprising design like this, inspired by the hand- ball game.

 

                                                                   Restaurant Trinquete Pelayo

Or this one, next to the market El Grao and the coast, an old hardware store transformed into a real bar of food for the natives and visitors.

                                                                Restaurant el Clavo

2. Valencia opens its kitchens

In spring and autumn the Valencia- cuina- oberta festival takes place, in the style of NYC-restaurants week or London Restaurant festival, and during ten days the most renowned establishments in Valencia offer their proposals for 20€ for lunch and 30€ for dinner ( € 45 michelin star)

3. Sea food rice week

Between September and October, the gastronomic days of sea rices are also celebrated at the beach of la malvarrosa, with menus between € 18 and € 28.

4. 4. A tip: Authentic Local Valencian Paella

After visiting the Mercado de Colón or the Central Market, it is convenient to delve into the charms of the Mediterranean cuisine of Valencia, direct from the vegetable garden to the dish. Local people usually meet on Sundays with friends to cook together the famous Valencian paella cooked on wood fire, so it is the best time to participate in the event.

It is the time of cooking based on memory and environment; of looking towards our land and our past – because we are what precedes us. It is time for gastronomy returning to its essence, to a pure kitchen, which looks more at the garden than at the laboratory; to let us recognise that the excitement at the table has much more to do with the heart and with the pantry; with the earth, the vegetables, the herbs, the flowers and the vegetables; the sea and the mountain. It is time to return to the product.

My advice is that you participate in one of these culinary festivals: Valencia, more than rice and tapas.

José Vicente Niclós – Local Trip Counselor