The first time I made zarzuela de marisco, I understood the name the moment the pot came together, because there in the golden, tomato-rich broth was an entire cast of characters, each playing its own part. A stew like this could only be named after an opera. Zarzuela is the word for a beloved form …
Most people planning a European trip do the same thing without thinking twice, they book a round-trip into one city and out again, then spend part of their vacation backtracking across the continent to get back to where they started. There is a better way, and it has a slightly odd name that hides how …
On the Malvarrosa in Valencia, on a Tuesday in August, a woman somewhere past seventy walks out of the sea, wrings the water from her grey hair, and lies back down on her towel without adjusting a single thing. She is wearing the bottom half of a bikini and nothing else. Nobody looks. The teenagers …
Somewhere in Spain right now, a village is stringing lights across its main square, a brass band is warming up, and a community is preparing to throw itself into days of music, food and dancing deep into the summer nights. This is the fiesta, the annual celebration that every Spanish town and village holds in …
And what it reveals about privacy, water, and why hygiene isn’t just about soap it’s about rhythm Americans traveling through Europe often encounter a familiar frustration: the shower. Sometimes it’s a handheld nozzle instead of a fixed head. Sometimes there’s no curtain, just a small half-glass partition. Sometimes there’s no wall hook at all. And …
Long before most of the city has stirred, she is already at her stall, arranging tomatoes into gleaming pyramids with hands that have done this ten thousand mornings. She is somewhere past seventy, and she runs her corner of the market with an energy that would exhaust women half her age. In the covered markets …
There is a phrase that strikes quiet dread into the heart of everyone who has dealt with Spanish bureaucracy, and it is not a fine or a form or a fee. It is the cita previa, the prior appointment you must obtain before doing almost anything with the Spanish government. Want to register your address, …
Tucked into the far west of Spain, along the Portuguese border, lies a region most travelers have never heard of and most tourists never see. Extremadura is one of the emptiest corners of the country, a vast, sun-baked landscape of Roman ruins, wild nature reserves, and quiet old towns, home to only about a million …
The first thing you notice about laundry in Spain is that nobody seems to own a tumble dryer, and the balconies are full of clothes flapping in the sun. The second thing you notice, if you pay attention, is that people wash in cold water, use little detergent, and do not launder every garment after …
There is an old fisherman in a hundred Mediterranean harbors, past seventy and often well past it, who still takes his small boat out before dawn as he has every working day of his life. He would be quietly surprised to learn that his ordinary working day, the early rise, the physical labor, the fresh …
If you love empanadas, you might already know that there are different versions of them. Although all are delicious, it’s really good to know the differences between each, as the empanada you’re going for will definitely need different ingredients and cooking styles, ultimately resulting in the unique empanada of your choice of place of origin. …
If you grew up anywhere in Spain, natillas is the taste of childhood in a small bowl. It is the soft, pale-yellow custard that always appeared on kitchen tables after a long lunch, a dusting of cinnamon on top and a single round biscuit floating like a raft. It is not a fancy dessert, and …