IF YOU LOVE PAELLA, it is fair to say that it is always Paella Week in your heart. You've always got the spices simmering in the center of your spirit, and you've got rice-tastic dreams by night, the sort of dreams that are dotted with the over-sized paella pans. But sometimes, if we're very lucky, and we're in the right place, and it is the right time, there might actually be a Paella Week occurring outside of our food-based fantasies. That is happening now, just as late March is wearing its rainiest garb, and it is simmering, with socarrat-style panache in Redondo Beach. A Basq Kitchen is the place, and because March 27 is National Paella Day, the eatery is spotlighting a different paella for several days in advance of the yummy holiday. The special paellas will be on through Sunday, March 25, and we aren't throwing the word "special" around here: A Basq Kitchen does, in fact, cook a weekly paella, but only on Thursdays.
SO WHAT'S IN THE PAN? Well, perfection, paella people, but if you're looking for a certain specific interpretation of paella, here goes this list: March 22 is all about paella negra with garlic aioli, March 23 is a pork belly paella with cured cabbage, March 24 is a chicken + chorizo paella with chicharrones, and March 25 will see a paella mixta with meat and seafood. It's the third annual Paella Week for the eatery, which puts a modern spin on traditional Basque classics. And it couldn't come at a better moment, what with these damp chilly days and the desire to eat something so flavorful and so filling that not even the largest of paella pans can hold our paella-scented daydreams. Maybe three pans could? Okay, we'll leave it at that.
