Hi mousethief

MtheGM is right they would have been what we call whitebait. Delicious by the way.

Your experience has happened to us in Spain. Like you we went to a small fishing village and ordered what was called fried fish on the "translation" on the Spanish menu. We got the little ones fried whole.

These are called boquerones in spanish and you get these if you order fried fish. If you want the bigger ones that we all get in our own countries you have to specify that you want pescado frito.

Same in France....you got friture......the big fish are ordered as poissons frit.

Because I have been to Spain many times I taught myself to understand the language. Had many laughable incidents along the way because I insisted in ordering everything in Spanish and I THOUGHT I knew what I was ordering. Luckily I can and do eat almost anything but my good lady gave me some ear-ache on occasions...

I have been asked many times while in Spain to help English people who don't speak the language. Two amusing ones stand out...I was in the local Spanish Supermarket one day ( two checkouts !!!) and an English guy had heard me ordering what I wanted in Spanish. He asked me if I knew the Spanish for puff pastry I told him that I knew what pastry was but that I was not going to ask a Spaniard what was the Spanish for puff...lol

The other happened in the local Spanish Pharmacy. Don't ask me why but they never appear to have anyone who speaks English. Anyway this day there was an English lady looking flustered at the counter so I asked if I could help. She told me that she had forgotten to pack her HRT medication and was staying for a month. I asked her what was the pharmceutical name but I just couldn't get it over to the pharmacist I ended up by literally saying the letters HRT ( which are meaning less in spanish) something like "ache erre te" So she brought out all the different kinds and the lady spotted the one she took.

Part of the fun going abroad is some of the surprise that can happen......my wife and I always just go with the flow...the Spanish are delightful people and they try to be most helpful - we have made many Spanish friends from this.

hasta la vista

miguel