Fideo basically means noodles in Spanish, and fideos are short noodles. They are short, gold-brown in color and most often found in sopa de fideo, or Fideo Soup, which is a Mexican soup. In Spain, fideos are popularly found in a dish called fideua, which is kind of like paella pasta. The most interesting thing about fideo is that unlike most other forms of noodles and pasta it has to be toasted first. While this is not always essential, for most dishes made with fideo you have to toss these short noodles in a hot pan, with or without oil, and then let them toast to a deep brown color before they are boiled in water.