Spain Explained
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Spain Explained is the podcast for people who want to understand Spanish culture, Spanish food, and Spanish traditions beyond the guidebook basics. Hosted by award-winning author and cook Marti Buckley, who's lived in Spain since 2010, this show unpacks the concepts, rituals, and quirks that make Spain… Spain.
Whether you're planning a trip to Spain, obsessed with Spanish cuisine, dreaming of moving there, or just curious why lunch can last four hours, this podcast translates the untranslatable. Each episode dives into one single part of Spanish life, from sobremesa to siesta, café con leche to jamón ibérico, and explains what it is and why it matters.
Marti is the author of cookbooks including The Book of Pintxos and Basque Country, writes for Condé Nast Traveler, The Telegraph, and Food & Wine,, and founded the International Society for the Preservation and Enjoyment of Vermouth. She's your insider guide to Spanish culture, Spanish daily life, and Spanish food traditions.
This podcast is about understanding why Spain works the way it does. Perfect for Spain lovers, travelers, expats, and anyone who's wondered why Spaniards eat dinner at 10pm.
New episodes weekly covering Spanish food culture, daily life in Spain, regional traditions, and the quirks of living in Spain.
Whether you're planning a trip to Spain, obsessed with Spanish cuisine, dreaming of moving there, or just curious why lunch can last four hours, this podcast translates the untranslatable. Each episode dives into one single part of Spanish life, from sobremesa to siesta, café con leche to jamón ibérico, and explains what it is and why it matters.
Marti is the author of cookbooks including The Book of Pintxos and Basque Country, writes for Condé Nast Traveler, The Telegraph, and Food & Wine,, and founded the International Society for the Preservation and Enjoyment of Vermouth. She's your insider guide to Spanish culture, Spanish daily life, and Spanish food traditions.
This podcast is about understanding why Spain works the way it does. Perfect for Spain lovers, travelers, expats, and anyone who's wondered why Spaniards eat dinner at 10pm.
New episodes weekly covering Spanish food culture, daily life in Spain, regional traditions, and the quirks of living in Spain.
42 Episodes
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Horchata is one of Spain's most famous non-alcoholic drinks: a cold, milky beverage made from chufa, a small brown tuber that grows underground in the sandy huerta just north of Valencia. Every glass carrying the Chufa de Valencia seal comes from 339 hectares worked by 240 farmers. In this episode, we go deep (as always), tracing the word back to a Latin barley drink and follows the chufa from spring planting through months of drying in the growers' storage rooms. You'll hear exactly how horchata is made in Alboraya, the town known as its cradle, with soaked tubers, very cold water and no cooking at all. What does it taste like? What do you eat with it? How do you know you're getting the real thing? All your answers, including what makes it different than its Mexican cousin, in this episode. If you want more about Spain: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com
Every November 1, Spain marks Día de Todos los Santos, the All Saints' Day holiday when families fill the cemeteries to scrub their relatives' markers and leave chrysanthemums, and when pastry shop windows fill with little marzipan bones called huesos de santo. Marti Buckley explains where the feast came from and why November 1 and November 2 are two separate days but in Spain are folded into one. We'll talk (of course) what gets eaten: the huesos, the buñuelos de viento that are said to free a soul from purgatory, the panellets and roasted chestnuts of la Castanyada. And then we head north for the carved pumpkins of Galicia's Samaín and the Basque Gau Beltza, customs that nearly vanished before towns brought them back, plus a few other customs from the rest of Spain. If you want more about Spain: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com
Cava is Spain's sparkling wine and one of the great bargains in the wine world. It's made the same way as Champagne, with a second fermentation inside the bottle. It's also the most exported wine in Spain: 190 million bottles last year, to more than 130 countries. Marti Buckley explains how the bubbles get into the bottle, why the word cava (which means cellar) replaced the old name xampany, and how a wine invented in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia came to be made as far away as Extremadura. She walks through the three local grapes behind it (macabeo, xarel·lo and parellada), how to read the aging and sweetness on a label, and how cava compares to Champagne and Prosecco. Then the split: why Recaredo and Gramona left the Cava DO to form Corpinnat, why Juvé & Camps is following them, and why a single valley's wine can go by five different names. Plus Marti gets into her 24 hour trip to Alella and what to pour on Nochevieja. If you want more about Spain: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com
La propina is the Spanish tip: a few voluntary coins left on a saucer, on top of a wage the waiter already earns by contract. Marti Buckley explains how much to leave at the bar and at a restaurant table, and why ten percent is the absolute ceiling. The word comes from a Greek toast meaning "I drink before you," and the first propina was the wine left in the cup. The history runs through Madrid in 1933, when waiters won the abolition of the tip, spent months handing coins back to customers, and then went on strike for a real salary. There's also the cash question, which directly affects HOW you should leave the tip: 97 percent of Spaniards usually tip in cash. The episode also goes into the current feeling around the tip: an August 2026 survey, 77 percent said they would eliminate the propina altogether. If you want more about Spain: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com
Spain Explained continues its series on all of Spain's autonomous communities with the Comunitat Valenciana (Comunidad Valenciana in Spanish, the Valencian Community in English), the birthplace of paella and Spain's sunny citrus-filled paradise. And it's out just in time for October 9, the Día de la Comunitat Valenciana, and makes a good way to celebrate the day. Marti Buckley starts with the map: three provinces stacked along 500 kilometers of Mediterranean coast. From there she explains region's history, the Valencian language and where it is spoken, the October 2024 flood, and what the rest of Spain pictures when it pictures Valencia. Then, of course, the food: the sanctioned ingredients of a paella valenciana, horchata with fartons, the mid-morning esmorzaret, and the marzipan Valencians give the people they love every October 9. If you want more about Spain: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com
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