Rice from La Plana
Sunday means rice. In Onda that means paella in a big pan, over fire, no shortcuts. And there are bars where you need to book ahead if you want a table.
Classic paella valenciana has chicken, rabbit, bajoqueta (flat green beans), garrofó (broad beans), tomato, olive oil, paprika and saffron. In Onda it is cooked in large pans on Sundays at bars with terraces, and most require a reservation. This is not tourist food: it is what local families eat.
If you would rather sit down at a set table, Restaurante El Cid, in the Pasaje Algueró, cooks rice dishes to order (baked rice and paella valenciana, among others).
Arròs al forn
When the weather cools, the starring dish changes. Arròs al forn is cooked in an earthenware pot and does not leave the oven until it is ready to eat.
Arròs al forn (oven-baked rice) is the other winter classic: ribs, chorizo, black pudding, chickpeas, potato and tomato. Hearty, affordable and almost impossible to find in restaurants outside the province: one more reason to order it while you are here.
Arròs passejat ("paraded rice"), first simmered in stock (often seafood) then finished in the oven, is the more festive version. It has a depth of flavour that plain arròs al forn does not. If it is on the menu, it is a sign the restaurant takes its cooking seriously.
The esmorzaret
At half past ten the bars fill up. The esmorzaret here is not a brunch with a fancy name: it is a proper sandwich, olives, something warm from the counter and, if the day calls for it, a cremaet to finish.
The mid-morning break is substantial: sandwiches of llonganissa (cured sausage), figatells (offal patties), black pudding or potato omelette, always with "gasto" on the side (olives, pickles, peanuts). During the festival season you find the ximo: a small roll stuffed with a sofrito of tomato, pepper, tuna, hard-boiled egg and pine nuts, soaked in milk, dipped in egg and fried. A warm counter snack very typical of the province.
The cremaet
The finish of the esmorzaret. Rum flambéed with sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon and coffee beans: a carajillo that arrived from overseas, served in a short glass, hot, with caramelised sugar around the rim.
Leaving without a cremaet is leaving the esmorzaret unfinished. For bars serving the mid-morning break, the counter and vermouth, see the guide to bars and tapas in Onda.
Source: Ajuntament d'Onda.
The Pastís d'Onda
If you ask what people eat in Onda, sooner or later the pastís comes up. It used to be made only on Fridays; today you find it every day, but Friday is still the day. Arrive late and you go without.
The Pastís d'Onda is a closed savoury pasty: thin, flaky pastry over a filling of spinach, tomato, onion, parsley, tuna and hard-boiled egg. Crisp on the outside, tender within. The reference recipe is attributed to a local woman called Esperanza, and since then every bakery has its own version, but all stay true to the same spirit. You buy it in the bakeries in the centre and eat it hot or warm: at the mid-morning break, as a snack, at any gathering. If you are in Onda on a Friday and you have not tried the pastís, something has gone wrong.
The coca de tomata
Its companion on counters and in bakeries, but unlike the pastís it is presented open: thin, crisp dough, uncovered, with the sofrito visible on top.
The coca de tomata is a thin bread base topped with a sofrito of tomato, pepper and onion, sometimes with tuna or anchovies. Eaten as a snack, a light supper or part of the mid-morning break. Alongside it, other savoury cocas: with vegetables, spinach, anchovies. The savoury coca is the most democratic way to eat in the province: cheap, tasty and in every bakery in the centre.
Traditional sweets of La Plana
The local pastry tradition does not get much press, but the bakeries in the centre have more traditional pieces than they might seem to at first glance.
The pastissets de moniato are the most characteristic sweet pastries: thin crescent-shaped dough filled with sweet potato cooked with lemon and cinnamon, with the edges crimped by hand. Rollets d'anís (soft anise-and-olive-oil ring biscuits) are another constant in the pastry shops, as are carquiñolis, hard almond biscuits made for dunking in coffee or sweet wine.
There is more: rosquilletes (crisp olive oil and anise sticks), lemon-heavy magdalenas, sweet cocas and, in season, pumpkin bunyols (fritters). The best strategy: walk into a bakery, look at the display case and ask for "lo más típico" (the most traditional things). Trays appear that are not in any guide.
Onda's hospitality sector has its own association: Hosturionda. Their website is a good starting point if you want recommendations straight from the local industry.