Huevos and huevas

This afternoon in Jerez de la Frontera, Rachael, Erin and I learned a very important lesson about the Spanish language. We were ordering a bunch of tapas at a bar to share, and had decided to get some eggs. Fried eggs (huevos) with French fries are a popular dish to get here. We assumed that huevos a la plancha was simply a literal translation of fried eggs (since a la plancha usually means grilled). However, in our rush to order, we failed to notice that the word on the menu was huevas with an 'a', not huevos with an 'o' as we had thought. So when the waitress brought out the dish, we were surprised to see something that didn't really resemble fried eggs. The dish looked like some kind of meat with a white sauce similar to mayonnaise. Although I wasn't entirely sure what the meat was, I took a big bite, thinking that it couldn't be anything too horrible... and it wasn't too bad. I thought it was a bit plain, but kind of weird, so I didn't eat anymore. Rachael and Erin both thought it had a fishy taste to it.

Well, they were on the right track. When we texted our Spanish friend Nuria to find out what it was for sure, we were told that huevas are fish ovaries! That's right... I'm still not sure if there were actually eggs inside or not, but either way - gross!

So the obvious lesson to gain from this experience is that as insignificant as the difference between masculine and feminine may seem to us English speakers, one day it may mean the difference between eggs and fish ovaries for you too!