¡Hola! As this Visual Link Spanish Blog comes back to life, we kick off our conversation of the Spanish language lovers with something nice and celebratory. And what can be nicer and more celebratory than delicious food? We mean Spanish food, of course! Don’t worry, there’ll be some vocabulary included with our new tradition, the 10 Palabras (words) section.

As autumn, naturally, makes us crave richer foods, and, contrary to popular stereotypes, autumn is THE seafood season, the choice of the dish we’ll be talking about today is obvious: Seafood Paella!

Just a short history note, the people of Moorish Spain often made casseroles of rice, fish and spices for family gatherings and religious feasts, which made rice a staple food by the 15th century, and the tradition of family gatherings over a huge rice dish is still well and alive –with Paella!

Naturally, on the Mediterranean coast of Valencia, the locals used seafood instead of meat and beans to make Paella. This created the true Spanish Treasure: Valencian Seafood Paella!

With lots of recipe variations being out there, go ahead, get creative and come up with your perfect Seafood Paella!

Before you do that, you will probably need to go grocery shopping. And when you do, imagine that you aren’t in your local food chain store, but in a real Spanish market somewhere in a cozy Valencian village. You would probably find these 10 Palabras useful:

Rice – Arroz
Shrimp – Camarones
Mussels – Mejillones
Lobster – La langosta
Onion – La cebolla
Garlic – El ajo
Tomato – Tomate
Salt – Sal
Paprika – Pimentón
Seasonings – Condimentos
Thailand – Tailandia
¡Buen provecho!