Viva Valenciana!
MANILA, Philippines — Paella Valenciana is one of the world’s most famous rice dishes with a memorable combination of ingredients. It traces its roots in Spain, particularly in Valencia, where peasants use paelleras or pans to cook rice with easily available ingredients from the countryside: tomatoes, onions and snails. On special occasions rabbit or duck might be included, and the better-off could afford chicken. Little by little this ‘Valencian rice’ became more widely known. By the end of the nineteenth century ‘paella valenciana’ had established itself.
To pay tribute to the rice dish that was passed on to them by the Spaniards, General Trias, Cavite Mayor Luis ‘Jon-Jon’ Ferrer IV spearheaded the annual ‘Valenciana Festival’, with this year’s theme: Kultraseno (Kultura, at Tradisyong Gentriseno) “Kaagapay sa patuloy na pag-asenso”, which drew a crowd of both local and foreign tourist at the town plaza, which also coincided with the town’s 263rd Foundation Anniversary.
The Valenciana Festival is a much awaited event of the year for the Gentrisenos as this gives the wives of the 33 local barangay leaders to show off their cooking skills. The annual Valenciana Festival cooking competition and street dancing contest held at the promenade, started last year to showcase the ‘Paella Valenciana’, a special cuisine of Gentrisenos inherited from the Spaniards.
Mayor Ferrer, Rep. Antonio Ferrer (6th District) and the Performance Team spearheaded the festival to promote cultural awareness, to celebrate the importance of true blue Gentriseños, and to attract tourists and investors to come and witness the festivities.
The festival started with a wreath-laying ceremony at Gen. Mariano Trias monument followed by street dancing and valenciana cooking contest. The St. Thomas Aquinas School won the grand prize in the street dancing while Barangay Santiago bested other valenciana recipes in the cooking contest.
Local government leaders also cited House Tech Industries, American Power Conversion Corporation, Analog Devices, Purefoods Hormel Company, Maxim Philippines, Intel Technology Philippines, Magnolia Incorporated, Unilever Foods Philippines, Metrolab Industries, San Miugel Yamamura Packaging Corporation for being Top 10 Locators.
General Trias, formerly called San Francisco de Malabon, is a first class municipality founded on December 13, 1748 in the heart of Cavite. The locality was named after General Mariano Trias, the first Vice President of the country and a Filipino revolutionary at the turn of the 20th century.
Valenciana paella Recipes with Bill & Sheila(click on the graphic for more information)
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