Wenceslao Fernández Flórez was already a celebrated writer and historian when a circle of journalist friends invited him to Alicante in 1928 for a rice supper. The prospect worried him a little. His frail constitution made him cautious about eating too much, and there was a memory of a previous year’s misstep by a politician that still haunted him. Madrid lawyer Ossorio y Gallardo had joked about a red, portly man who could work magic with nothing more than rice, imagining rice pyramids where courses should be and desserts beyond reach.
Yet upon arrival in Alicante, warmth and hospitality proved immediately comforting. In mid-December, he sat on the casino terrace facing the sea, while friends recalled a bitterly cold day. How would fifteen degrees feel here? Locals noted that Alicante’s people rarely wore coats. The weather, they explained, was simply rainy. Just a few drops, but umbrellas proved elusive, traded or suggested by shopkeepers, or even remembered from a pharmacy. One guest even planned to rush home for his seven-year-old son, who had never seen rain in Alicante. The anecdote found its way into a travelogue, and one traveler christened the city the home of spring, for winter seemed to yield the moment one arrived in Alicante.
When it came to rice, the week unfolded with a parade of dishes, each more familiar to the traveler than the last. He encountered many regional variations: arrós en pollostre from Alicante, the flavors of a sailor’s dish from Dénia and Calpe, a hearty cauldron from Santa Pola, Huerto del Cura’s in-shell rice from Elche, and rice with rabbit and snails from Pinoso. Each plate carried a story, a locale, a memory, and a technique learned from generations of cooks.
Manuel Pérez Mirete, the dean of the journalists’ association, confessed that his palate had only recently embraced rice beyond the simple dry grain and a pilaf served with broth. A respected lawyer who had taken to teaching Roman Law, Don Manuel gathered a circle of Alicante’s eminent lawyers and writers, including Pedro Soriano, Isidro Serna, Francisco Mira, and Fernández Flórez himself. The lecturer’s lectures—sharp, wry, and fondly remembered—blended legal lore with human tales, even recounting love stories between different classes. The gathering eventually moved to a chalet on Alicante’s outskirts, where guests arrived dressed in outfits that seemed borrowed from the era of Mary Queen of Scots or Empress Catherine. The meal began with the much anticipated arrós caldoset, a dish so well digested that it could be enjoyed with fearless appetite despite its pork components. What struck Fernández Flórez most was the host rising during the feast to lift a glass and ask for a reason. The crowd answered in unison that there was indeed a reason, and the host drained the cup as a playful pledge of conviviality. Over time, the tale took on a life of its own as a ritual: drinking to celebrate the moment, while the guests embraced the meal for its own sake rather than for any grand purpose. The host’s question and the guests’ chorus became a ritual justification for simply savoring the feast.
The writer left Alicante elated by a culinary journey that felt like a live theatre of taste. Back in Madrid, he penned an article for a major newspaper headlined with a fond portrait of a rice eater. The story of Alicante’s agreeable climate and friendly people, together with the rice adventure, inspired the city’s own nickname of the spring home. When the inaugural bonfires of 1929 lit up the town, a ninot, or favorite figure, was chosen in recognition of the rice escapade. People began to ask which rice they preferred, and the consensus was clear: the most straightforward, unadorned grains, where broth and a rustic, flat-pan method—paella in its most genuine form—outshone all the elaborate presentations. The celebration of arroz, with its practical, unpretentious beauty, captured the essence of a region that valued warmth, community, and honest cooking over showy plates. This is a tapestry of memory where food, place, and people intertwine, offering a glimpse into the culture of Alicante and the power of shared meals to shape a city’s identity .