By Kate Reardon
Herald Writer
Encamacion rapidly clicks her red shoes on the plywood in step with flamenco guitarist Eric Jaeger’s music.
Meanwhile, Seattle chef Jim Kuhn serves up his signature dish – paella – of rice, beans clams, chicken shrimp and squid outside the student union building at Everett Community College.
About 200 guests on Wednesday soaked up the Spanish cuisine and entertainment sponsored by the Northwest Language Center at EvCC.
“The idea here is to bring diversity to the campus so the campus community can experience other cultures,” said Vidal Martin, co-director of the language center. “It gives us an opportunity to try the meal, but also experience the preparation of the meal and bring in art and music.”
Kuhn, also known to friends as Jaime or the Paella King, spent two hours cooking over three large, shallow paella pans to feed the group. Spanish language students gathered under the sunshine to listen to Kuhn explain in Spanish the preparation of his dish.
The crowd also included some Snohomish High School students as well as a Rotary exchange delegation from Mexico.
Delegate Flora Isabel Santos Perez had tried paella before and described the dish as “beautiful.”
That it is.
At serving time, clams, chicken, shrimp and squid rest neatly atop the rice resembling an artist’s canvas dabbled with colors.
Marysville’s Winston Vitous took delight Wednesday in talking about paellas key ingredient – saffron.
“It’s like eating diamonds,” he said, of the spice, which sells for about $250 an ounce.
Vitous was one of the first in line for the feast.
His first taste of paella was in 1961 during his travels through Madrid on a Fullbright Scholarship.
He’s enjoyed it many times since then and has even cooked it at home.
Paella offers something for everyone. In all, there are about 250 paella recipes.
“It’s a clean out your refrigerator type of meal,” Vitous said.
Dan Bauer, a network administrator at the college, had never tried paella.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “It tasted very good.”
Both men agreed the portions weren’t big enough. And Vitous was spotted a short time later heading back up for seconds.
Martin, of the language center, said Wednesday was the center’s second paella event.
“Our goal now is to turn this into an annual event,” Martin said. “Maybe we could turn this into some kind of festival and more people from the community would come.”
You can call Herald Writer Kate Reardon at 425-339-3455 or send e-mail to reardon@heraldnet.com
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