As a food country, Spain's cuisine combines various ingredients. Among them, seafood plays a big part. Nowadays, Spanish-style seafood rice presents one of the most popular specialties in Europe. Let's visit the country now and sample the flavor.

Seafood rice is one of the most commonly seen dishes in the Spanish countryside. And even though its name is rather straightforward, it's actually kind of hodgepodge. Today, seafood rice tops the list as a favorite dish among Europeans, along with Italian Spaghetti and French Escargot.

Seafood is on a must-eat list when travellers come to Spain, no matter what part of Spain tourists visit, its always highly recommended to taste the local seafood.

The way folks usually cook seafood rice is to prepare chicken, rabbit meat and diced tomato, along with squid and prawn. Chefs put raw rice, pea, white bean, red pepper, onion, and salt together into a pan with olive oil, cooking for about fifteen minutes; and then they add the seafood and let it stew for a while. After that, you bake the whole thing at 150 degrees Celsius for another five minutes.

This allows the cooked rice to absorb the various seafood flavors, creating its special aroma. As popular as it is in Europe, people can hardly find the dish outside of Spain.

As for the origin of Spanish rice, some say it may have been butlers serving for the Spanish court who wanted to make good use of the leftovers. Another story is that it was created by Spanish fishermen. Either way, it brings a smile to your stomach.

(CNTV July 25, 2011)