Eat Out - Simply Spanish

Day 272

 

Every time I visit South Melbourne market, I would walk past Simply Spanish and ogle at its huge pans of paella. Not only do they look good, they smell damn good too. Cooking it on the streets is such a brillant business idea!

After yesterday's super big breakfast (courtesy of Gin's kitchen), we decided to have lunch there today. We ordered calamari and paella to share. Bread and water were quickly served. The place was soon packed and many were queuing to takeaway its paella.

 

The calamari ($12.50) arrived and it looks yummy! It's not the battered calamari that we usually have, instead the calamari was pan-fried before it was cut into bite-sized pieces. It was tasty and tender. The only complaint is that the portion's too little!

After finishing our calamari, we waited for our paella. We waited and waited and waited but it was nowhere in sight. With the restaurant now packed, it was difficult to get the staff's attention. Since the paella is coming from the huge pans, there's no reason why it's taking forever to come. It seemed like the waiter who took our orders had forgotten about us! I managed to catch one of the staff and told her that we're waiting for our paella. She went out to the pans and immediately brought us a plate. 

This is the first time that I'm having paella ($12.50) so I can't judge how authentic or how good it is. There were mussels, chicken, calamari, onions and peas in the paella and I must say they were generous with the chicken. I quite like the paella except for that 1 piece of calamari which I had. It tasted really fishy and left a strong aftertaste in my mouth. The size of the paella is more like an entree size serving so it didn't manage to fill Mr Tan's stomach. If not for the bread, he would still be hungry.