Expat Guide To Spain

Walk into any traditional tavern from Madrid to Malaga, look at the chalkboard menu, and you are guaranteed to find one word written at the top of the tapas list: Croquetas.

While often translated simply as "croquettes," these crispy, golden cylinders are a world away from the heavy, potato-filled versions found in Northern Europe. In Spain, a true croqueta is a masterpiece of balance—shattering with an audible crunch when bitten into, only to release a velvety, rich, and almost liquid centre.

Based on traditional culinary techniques, making them is a rite of passage for local home cooks. Here is why this humble bite rules the nation’s food culture, alongside the classic flavour combinations you need to look out for.

The Golden Rule: It's All About the Béchamel

The biggest secret to a genuine Spanish croqueta is that it contains absolutely no potato.

Instead, the structure relies entirely on a meticulously crafted béchamel sauce. The process requires patience: flour is cooked in fat (usually a mix of butter, olive oil, and the fat rendered from the fillings) to create a roux, before warm milk is slowly whisked in over a low flame.

The sauce is simmered until it is incredibly smooth and glossy. The mixture is then chilled overnight until it firms up enough to be shaped by hand, rolled in fine breadcrumbs, and flash-fried in piping hot olive oil.

The Big Three: Spain’s Favourite Varieties

While modern chefs occasionally experiment with innovative fillings, the heart of the Spanish kitchen belongs to three traditional varieties:

1. Croquetas de Jamón (Cured Ham)

The undisputed heavyweight champion of the tapas world. This variety utilises the offcuts and intense, salty trimmings of Jamón Ibérico. The ham is finely minced and folded into the béchamel toward the end of cooking, allowing the natural oleic acid and fat of the ham to melt directly into the sauce, infusing every bite with a deep, savoury richness.

2. Croquetas de Pollo (Chicken)

Historically, croquetas were born out of a necessity to waste nothing. The chicken variety is the ultimate expression of this zero-waste philosophy, traditionally made using the leftover shredded meat from a Cocido Madrileño (a rich, slow-cooked chickpea and meat stew). The long-simmered chicken adds a comforting, deeply aromatic depth to the creamy filling.

3. Croquetas de Bacalao (Salt Cod)

A massive favourite along the Atlantic coastlines of Galicia and the Basque Country. Salt cod is rehydrated, flaked into delicate ribbons, and balanced with plenty of fresh garlic and parsley within the béchamel. The bracing, clean salinity of the fish cuts through the richness of the dairy perfectly.

How to Spot a Masterpiece

Because they are so ubiquitous, quality can vary wildly. If you are hunting for the perfect plate of croquetas on your next outing, look for these three hallmarks of artisanal preparation:

• The Shape: Avoid perfectly uniform, identical cylinders. Real, hand-rolled croquetas will always have slight variations in size and shape—a clear sign they were shaped using two spoons in a traditional kitchen rather than extruded from a factory machine.

• The Shell: The exterior should be an even, pale-golden brown, bone-dry to the touch, and completely free of excess pooling oil.

• The Texture: When broken in half, the filling should slowly ooze across the plate like thick volcanic lava. If the interior stands up firm and stiff like block cheese, it has been overloaded with flour and lacks the necessary cooking time.

Ultimately, the croqueta is the ultimate comfort food. It bridges the gap between high gastronomy and grandmothers’ kitchens, proving that with a little time, basic ingredients like milk, flour, and leftovers can be transformed into the most sought-after bite in the country.

What is your absolute favourite croqueta filling when you visit your local tapas bar? Have you ever braved making the overnight béchamel at home?

For anyone who has driven or cycled along Spain’s scenic interurban routes—especially the winding mountain passes of the Tramuntana or the sun-bleached coastal stretches of the Mediterranean—the sight of cyclists spinning along the hard shoulder is completely woven into the landscape.

However, a significant regulatory shift published in Spain’s Official State Gazette (BOE) under Royal Decree 899/2025 is set to change the layout of these familiar tarmac stretches. Rumours have swirled that Spain is outright banning bikes from certain conventional highways, but the reality is a structural redesign aimed at a long-running friction point: the shared space between vehicles and bicycles.

Instead of a blanket ban on riders, Spain is introducing legal frameworks that allow local authorities to reduce, narrow, or entirely eliminate traditional hard shoulders on specific interurban roads. The goal? To reclaim that space and convert it into physically segregated, protected cycle paths running alongside the main carriageway.

Shifting Infrastructure, Not Shifting Rights

The headline rolling across social media might sound alarmist to the cycling community, but the core objective of the reform is a major upgrade to road safety rather than a restriction of access.

Under the updated traffic framework, sections of road deemed high-risk or narrow will undergo a physical transformation. Where a standard asphalt hard shoulder once sat, highway authorities can now install barriers, bollards, or distinct curbing to separate cyclists from fast-moving motor traffic.

The move tackles a sharp uptick in serious accidents on conventional roads, where a simple lapse in concentration from a motorist can immediately encroach on an unprotected hard shoulder. By turning the shoulder into a dedicated, segregated lane, the direct interaction between vehicles and cycling groups is drastically reduced.

Balance on the Islands and Costas

While this law applies nationwide across Spain, its impact is being felt most acutely in major sports tourism hubs like Mallorca and the Costa Blanca. These regions attract hundreds of thousands of amateur and professional riders every year, pumping millions into local economies, but also creating immense logistical strain on local infrastructure.

The changes have instantly ignited a fierce debate online and in local town halls:

The Motorist Perspective: Many local drivers, frustrated by slow-moving groups riding two-abreast on tight holiday routes, welcome the physical separation. The hope is that dedicated lanes will ease traffic congestion and reduce the high-stakes overtaking manoeuvres that fuel local road rage.

The Cyclist Perspective: While safety infrastructure is always welcome, cycling advocacy groups have raised immediate operational concerns. Debris, gravel, and blown-out tire shards naturally collect at the very edge of highways. If these new segregated lanes are not rigorously swept and maintained by local councils, cyclists will be forced to puncture or steer back onto the main driving lanes, defeating the purpose of the barrier.

What Drivers and Riders Need to Know Moving Forward

As these structural changes begin rolling out on the asphalt over the coming months, everyone using Spanish roads needs to stay sharp on the evolving landscape:

Look Out for New Layouts: Expect sudden changes to familiar routes. A road that had a wide, rideable shoulder last season may now feature concrete dividers, narrower car lanes, or newly painted green and red cycle corridors.

The Overtaking Rules Still Stand: The introduction of segregated sections does not change Spain's strict overtaking laws on standard stretches. Motorists must still maintain an absolute minimum distance of 1.5 meters when passing a cyclist on the roadway, and they are legally permitted to cross solid white lines to do so, provided the oncoming lane is completely clear.

Local Jurisdictions Have the Final Say: Because the decree authorises the modification of hard shoulders rather than mandating a universal sweep, changes will happen incrementally. Local town halls and island councils will prioritise the most hazardous tourist hotspots and heavy commuter corridors first.

Ultimately, the closing of the traditional hard shoulder to cyclists isn't about pushing bikes off the road—it’s about acknowledging that the old model of high-speed vehicles and lightweight carbon frames sharing a thin strip of painted asphalt is no longer sustainable. Whether this massive engineering experiment succeeds in creating true road harmony depends entirely on how well these new lanes are built, cleaned, and respected by everyone on the move.

Have you noticed any of these new segregated cycle paths popping up on your local routes? Do you think physical barriers will make the roads safer, or will they cause more frustration for drivers and riders alike?