Paella
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
45 free Paella trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Paella is the dish Valencians guard most fiercely, and the one the rest of the world most cheerfully gets wrong. It began as a farm-workers' lunch cooked over orange-wood fires beside the Albufera lagoon, took its name from the wide steel pan rather than anything in it, and was first called paella in print in 1840. Today a Valencian will tell you that only two recipes are authentic, that chorizo is a crime, and that the scorched rice at the bottom is the best part. These 45 questions cover the three versions of paella and what goes in each; the word's journey from Latin patella through Old French; bomba and senia rice; saffron, the world's most labour-intensive spice; the socarrat, the Thursday tradition and the rule about eating from the pan; the cousins arros negre, fideua, arros a banda and the Filipino paelya; Hemingway's 1959 visit; the 1992 and 2001 record paellas; the Jamie Oliver chorizo row and the emoji Apple had to redraw. Easy questions cover ingredients and origins; the hardest ask about etymologists, novelists and dates. Every answer is cited to the page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Paella takes its name from what?
Its cooking pan
Its cooking pan gave the dish its name: paella simply means frying pan in Valencian, and Valencian speakers use the word for every pan.
Q 02Which large flat white bean is a traditional ingredient of paella valenciana?
Garrofó
Garrofó, a large flat white butter bean of the lima family, is one of the core ingredients of traditional paella valenciana, simmered with the meat before the rice goes in.
Q 03Which of these is a traditional meat in paella valenciana?
Rabbit
Rabbit is one of paella valenciana's ten basic ingredients, fried in the pan with chicken before the vegetables and rice go in.
Q 04Which mollusc is a traditional ingredient of paella valenciana?
Snails
Snails went into early paellas because they were readily available in the fields around the rice paddies.
Q 05Which lagoon near Valencia is the traditional birthplace of paella?
Albufera
Albufera, a freshwater lagoon just south of Valencia, is ringed by the rice paddies where paella most likely took shape.
Q 06On which day of the week is paella traditionally on Spanish restaurant menus?
Thursday
Thursday is paella day on the menú del día in many Spanish restaurants, a custom that holds across Spain, not just in Valencia.
Q 07Which people spread rice farming through medieval Spain?
Arabs
Arabs expanded rice farming across Al-Andalus with new irrigation, though rice may have reached Spain before them.
Q 08What is the Latin root of the word paella?
Patella
Patella, the Latin root of paella, is also the anatomical name for the kneecap.
Q 09Which sauce is traditionally served with arròs a banda and fideuà?
Allioli
Allioli was a fundamental partner to arròs a banda, giving poor fishermen calories they could not get any other way.
Q 10Filipino paelya, usually saved for special occasions, is a staple of which holiday feast?
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve's Noche Buena dinner is where paelya commonly appears, since its costly ingredients keep it off everyday tables.
Q 11A disputed theory derives paella from baqiyya, a word meaning what?
Leftovers
Leftovers is what baqiyya means, but critics doubt the link, since the word paella turns up in writing only centuries later.
Q 12What rice variety do most paella cooks use?
Bomba
Bomba soaks up two or three times its volume in liquid without bursting, so the grains stay separate; a cultivar called senia is also used around Valencia.
Q 13Which flat green bean is a traditional paella valenciana ingredient?
Ferradura
Ferradura, one of Valencia's native flat green beans, is a core vegetable of paella valenciana and goes into the pan once the meat has been fried.
Q 21What pejorative name do Valencians give paellas with chorizo and other 'wrong' ingredients?
Arroz con cosas
Valencians dismiss paellas with chorizo or other 'wrong' ingredients as arroz con cosas, 'rice with things', insisting they are not paella at all.
Q 22Which British chef's chorizo paella recipe sparked a famous controversy in Spain?
Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver's paella recipe included chorizo, which Valencians insist belongs in no paella of any kind.
Q 23Which wood traditionally fuels the open fire under a Valencian paella?
Orange tree branches
Orange tree branches traditionally fuel the fire under a Valencian paella, and they give the rice its characteristic flavour and aroma.
Q 14Which herb is sometimes added to paella in whole branches?
Rosemary
Rosemary goes in as a few whole sprigs, which stay in the pan for only a few minutes.
Q 15What rodent was a main ingredient of early Valencian paellas?
Water vole
Water vole, known locally as rata de marjal or marsh rat, was once a main ingredient of paella in Valencia's rice country.
Q 16Which marsh fish was one of the main ingredients of early Valencian paellas?
Eel
Eel from the rice fields went into early paellas, until rising living standards brought chicken into the pan instead.
Q 17Nicaraguans sometimes nickname arroz a la valenciana after which kind of party?
Piñata
Piñata gives the nickname: Nicaraguans sometimes call it arroz de piñata, since it's often served at children's birthday parties, themselves called piñatas.
Q 18Besides chicken, which bird is an accepted addition to traditional paella valenciana?
Duck
Duck appears as an optional meat in the classic paella valenciana ingredient list, and Valencia's official recipe register still accepts it.
Q 19Which vegetable stands in for green beans in Valencian paella during winter?
Artichoke
Artichoke hearts replace the hard-to-find beans in winter, giving a version some Valencians call paella d'hivern, winter paella.
Q 20Mixed paella is sometimes nicknamed what, for its riot of ingredients?
Baroque preparation
Baroque preparation is what some call mixed paella, the seafood-and-meat combination Spaniards outside Valencia created and Valencians reject as inauthentic.
Q 24How do diners traditionally eat paella in Valencia?
Straight from the pan
Straight from the pan: diners skip plates and eat from the paella itself, traditionally with wooden spoons.
Q 25What is the prized layer of scorched rice at the bottom of a paella called?
Socarrat
Socarrat takes its name from the Valencian verb socarrar, 'to singe', and Valencians relish those toasted grains.
Q 26At which meal do Valencians traditionally eat paella?
Lunch
Lunch is when Valencians traditionally eat paella, and the dish has long been their natural choice for festive gatherings.
Q 27Which fish is a classic choice for the seafood in fideuà?
Monkfish
Monkfish is a classic in fideuà, which a Gandia ship's cook reputedly invented because his rice-loving captain often left the crew without their share.
Q 28What is the official Unicode name of the paella emoji?
Shallow Pan of Food
The paella emoji's official Unicode name is 'Shallow Pan of Food'; it was approved in Unicode 9.0 in June 2016.
Q 29Which rice gives Filipino paelya a softer texture than Spanish paella?
Glutinous
Glutinous rice, known locally as malagkit, gives paelya a soft, sticky texture, unlike the al dente grains favoured in Spanish paella.
Q 30Which Louisiana dish was influenced by paella?
Jambalaya
Jambalaya blends Spanish, West African and French one-pot rice cooking, though some authors argue it is closer to pilaf than to paella.