[MJR]

Sitting behind me, on the range, is a very large Paella pan.

Next to it are various ingredients, with a combined cost that matches a small mortgage payment. Posted nearby is yet another soon to be tried Paella recipe, gleaned from one of many sources.

Could tonite be the night? Could tonite's Paella be the Ultimate? Our guests will be sure to let me know, but before I begin to cook, I thought I might take a moment to seek the advice of others on this fine Friday afternoon.

We continue to seek Paella Nirvana and wondered if anyone out there has spent their children's inheritance on ingredients over the years and finally solved the riddle of the Ultimate, the Best, the Most Worthy Paella?

Seafood Paella, Poultry Paella, Beans and Weenies Paella, the type doesn't matter, as long as my guests say "Wow"

[Suzanne]

There are many foods for which I have sought "the Ultimate" at various times-- fried chicken always, one year blueberry pie. But I hope I never, ever find it, in anything. Then I'd have to give up the search, and isn't that more fun than anything else?

BTW: In one of his books, John Thorne has a piece about how one person's "ultimate" recipe may not be another's. His specific reference is to a recipe for cheesecake that ran in the NY Times in 1974. I've made that cake, and it was great, but was it "the ultimate"? I don't know. And I don't much care. I just want to keep searching.

[MJR]

You are most certainly correct, Suzanne, in that the search will always go on, the bar will always move higher, the carrot will always be just out of reach and the socarrat will always be a bit too dark.

"........Look well, Arthur, for it is your sacred task to seek this Grail......"