We enjoyed our impulse purchases of Valencian fast food. The cool March weather made the hot chocolate taste good, the fresh-squeezed orange juice helped us to feel healthy, we enjoyed pork products in various guises, and the street-side Fallas paella and peanuts was a seasonal bonus.
Valencia is known for its thick hot chocolate. We sampled a cup at a table in a small café, accompanied by sweet, fried dough balls called bunuelo. The hot chocolate was indeed very rich, almost porridge-like in consistency, and competed with the doughy bunuelos for sugary richness. I do not think I could have drunk more than one cup, but we enjoyed the lazy and relaxed atmosphere of the café
We had seen the doughy confections being sold from small temporary stands on the street. For some intriguing reason, the stands advertise themselves with a couple of melons on the counter. We could not establish what this symbolises, and it surely does not suggest that their wares are particularly healthy.
Orange trees really are a prominent feature of the Valencia urban landscape. In early March there was still ripe fruit on the trees, although the one we sampled definitely looked much better than it tasted. However, many of Valencia’s cafés have orange juicing machines, and the juice from these was delicious.
It was fun to see the Fallas paella being cooked on the street. Not all paella is fish-based, and the ones we saw consisted mainly of chicken and beans with the rice.
The other seasonal fast food we came across included mona de pascua. These are thick, doughy nests wrapped around eggs (either hen’s eggs or chocolate eggs). They are apparently unique to Valencia and are sold for the Santa Semana holy week leading up to Easter.
Our last fast-food act in Valencia was to pick up some bocadillos (filled baguettes) for the RyanAir flight home. My bocadillo was filled with thick, salty bacon and certainly much better (and a much better value) than anything I could have bought at the airport or on the plane. It was a good ending to an interesting few days of fast-food experiences.