Paella pan....carbon steel?

So what is the best kind of paella pan?.....i don't know too much about them......any recommendations.....i got a cheap budget......a friend wants one for Xmas and i wanna get them one they can enjoy......do they make one like those old like french steel pans......Ryan

Would something like this be good?

Geez, that's expensive.

Even Australia has genuine "commercial grade" traditional style Spanish made pans cheaper.



Paella World Paella Pan, Original, 42cm thin hi-carbon AUD$35.00

Even the Paella world Pata Negra extra thick carbon steel is only AUD$74.95
http://www.everten.com.au/_search.php?page=1&q=paella

I have yet to cook paella, although I've eaten it in a friend's home. I think that's a pretty neat pan, maybe even for more than paella. Foodservicewarehouse.com has them a tad cheaper, and I've had pretty good luck dealing with them. I'm spending more time cooking in my old kiln shed -- grilling, brick oven, etc, and I might have to add one of these to my wish list. I want to build a fire ring, burning wood, for stir-frying anyway, and this pan would work well on the ring.

In Spain, we use 4 kinds:

1. what we call "polished" steel, your regular carbon steel pan

2. Enameled steel, same as before, but with an enamel coating

3. Inox steel

4. non-stick

if you want to go the traditional route, pick one of the first two, I personally like the carbon steel, 11 inches for 2 people, no need for seasoning.

It seems that La Tienda stocks everything you need, and don't forget that the burner is as important as the pan.

Great info, thanks Lukas!

Here is a episode of good eats about paela: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apvdg7wgc38
I think there's a lot of useful information about the paela pan

There's a great cooking TV show in the basque country, and they have made paella a couple of times

1. seafood paella: http://blog.daviddejorge.com/2011/08/29/robinfood-arroz-a-banda-socarrat/ by Quique Dacosta, 2 Michelin stars, one of the greatest chefs we have right now

2. rabbit paella: http://blog.daviddejorge.com/2010/07/12/robinfood-paella-valenciana/

the show is obviously in Spanish but it shouldn't be too hard to follow and the recipes can be translated with Google Translate.