Rice dishes, paella and fideuà
In Barcelona, rice arrives more often as mar i muntanya — with butifarra sausage — or as fideuà, the noodle dish born among Gandia's fishermen. Paella exists, but the local Sunday plate is another thing.
Fideuà and seafood rices
The good ones live where the fish is fresh: the lifelong Barceloneta and the neighborhoods around municipal markets. If a place does not brag about its daily fish, do not order rice there.
Mar i muntanya
Sea plus mountain — shrimp with chicken, cuttlefish with sausage — is the signature of popular Catalan cooking. It sounds odd and it works; order it where cooking targets neighbors, not guidebooks.
Rice takes time
A proper rice is cooked to order and waits for no one: twenty minutes minimum from ordering. What lands in five is precooked, and the group-menu paella at giveaway prices is the classic trap.