
Photography by Stacey Doyle
RECIPE makes four small fish
- Preheat the oven to 325°
- To prepare the fish, remove scales and guts.* Rinse and pat dry. Score the sides. Season inside and out with Mrs. Dash seasoning. Arrange fish on their sides in a baking pan. Thinly slice 1 zucchini and 1 white onion. Place slices on top of fish. Drizzle with olive oil, and bake for 30 minutes.
- While the fish is in the oven, prepare the sauce. Mix 1 packet (about 1½ teaspoons) sazon seasoning, 1½ teaspoons adobo seasoning, and 1 pint Goya tomato sauce. Add a small handful of cilantro or basil, chopped fine. Optional: add a pinch of hot pepper, such as cayenne.
- Remove fish from oven after 30 minutes. Pour tomato sauce mixture over the fish, and return to oven. Bake another 30 minutes. The flesh should be white all the way through when poked with a fork. Remove and serve warm.
+ Alice Rivera, Puerto Rico: FISH ESCABECHE
Alice Rivera moved from Puerto Rico to Rhode Island as a young child. Although Puerto Rico is in the U.S., the seafood cuisine that Alice learned from her mother and grandmother is its own regional specialty—different not only from New England’s cod and boiled potatoes, but also from other Caribbean island seafood cuisines.
Puerto Ricans enjoy a lot of shrimp, octopus, crabmeat, lobster meat, and clams, Alice recounts, and they flavor it with onions, red peppers, and cilantro. Regardless of preparation, she adds, fish is best when it’s fresh.
“I prefer catching fish myself, instead of going to a fish market,” Alice explains. In the summer, she likes to go with friends and family to Narragansett and East Greenwich, where they fish from kayaks and dig for quahogs. Her favorite local catches are striped bass, scup, and flounder.

Photography by Stacey Doyle
RECIPE makes two small fish
- Preheat the oven to 325°
- To prepare the fish, remove scales and guts.* Rinse and pat dry. Score the sides. Season inside and out with Mrs. Dash seasoning. Arrange fish on their sides in a baking pan. Thinly slice 1 zucchini and 1 white onion. Place slices on top of fish. Drizzle with olive oil, and bake for 30 minutes.
- While the fish is in the oven, prepare the sauce. Mix 1 packet (about 1½ teaspoons) sazon seasoning, 1½ teaspoons adobo seasoning, and 1 pint Goya tomato sauce. Add a small handful of cilantro or basil, chopped fine. Optional: add a pinch of hot pepper, such as cayenne.
- Remove fish from oven after 30 minutes. Pour tomato sauce mixture over the fish, and return to oven. Bake another 30 minutes. The flesh should be white all the way through when poked with a fork. Remove and serve warm.
+ Alba Rabe, Honduras: FRIED FISH WITH PLANTAINS, CABBAGE SALAD, AND PICO DE GALLO
Alba Rabe is from the Pacific coast of Honduras, a land of mangroves, shrimp, and shellfish. There, Alba says, she ate seafood at least twice a week, sometimes every day. It’s a tradition she has maintained since moving to Rhode Island, where her favorite local fish is scup. Although she likes to go fishing with her family in Newport each summer, Alba says that her talents lie in the cooking, not the catching.
“My sister is good catching those fish, but I don’t know how. I usually go with my family, but I just like to be there to support them. To go fish- ing, you have to have a passion for it. That’s not me. I love to eat it, but not catch it!”

Photography by Stacey Doyle
RECIPE makes four small fish
- To prepare the fish, remove scales and guts.* Rinse and pat dry. Score the sides. Sprinkle with salt.
- Pour canola or vegetable oil into a deep frying pan or wok. Heat oil over high heat. Test for readiness by adding a drop of water or a piece of vegetable; the oil is ready when the test ingredient sizzles and pops.
- Add fish to the oil, and cook until it is golden brown. Then flip it and cook until the other side also appears crispy. Serve accompanied with pico de gallo, cabbage salad, and fried green plantain chips.
- To make pico de gallo, finely chop 1 small white onion, 3 plum toma- toes, and 2 tablespoons cilantro. Mix with 1 tablespoon salt, juice of 1 lemon, ½ tablespoon white vinegar, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, and ¼ teaspoon cumin.
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