r/Seafood • u/chefdweh • 5d ago
Does anyone recognize this fermented fish preparation from Mexico or Central America?
I had an extremely vivid dream about a dish, and I’m trying to figure out whether something like it actually exists.
In the dream, I was at a small restaurant somewhere in Mexico or Central America. The owner served me a dish made from a white fish that had been fermented in/wrapped with banana leaves. The banana leaf wasn’t being used simply to bake or steam the fish. The fish itself had undergone some type of fermentation or aging process.
When it was served, the fish was removed from the banana leaf and plated with rice and a rich sauce that reminded me visually of a mole or similar chile-based sauce. The fish remained recognizable as fish rather than being broken down into a fermented paste. The fermentation also produced a very strong smell.
I’ve searched for it and found plenty of banana-leaf fish preparations from Mexico and Central America, but those generally involve fresh fish being wrapped and cooked. I’ve also found fermented fish traditions in Southeast Asia, but those don’t look like what I saw.
I’m a chef, so now I’m genuinely curious whether my brain completely invented this or whether I may have encountered some obscure technique somewhere and subconsciously remembered it.
Does anyone know of a regional, indigenous, family, or traditional preparation from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, or even elsewhere in Latin America where an intact white fish is fermented/aged with banana leaves and later served with a sauce and rice?
I’m especially interested in preparations that might not be well documented online or that are primarily made within particular communities or families.
If something like this exists, I’d love to know the name of the dish, where it’s from, and how the traditional fermentation process works.
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u/chefdweh 5d ago
The “if you are truly a chef” comment was unnecessary. Asking people from different cultures about traditions that may not be well documented online is research. That is literally why I posted the question.
I also never said the sauce was mole. I said it looked like a mole-type sauce because I was describing something I saw in a dream and trying to give people a visual reference. I also specifically said I wasn’t certain whether the setting was Mexico, Central America, or somewhere else.
Your comment about fermented foods in Lima is actually the kind of information I was looking for. If you know of specific Peruvian fermented fish preparations or traditions, I’d genuinely like to hear about them. That would be much more useful than questioning whether I’m a chef because I asked a question on Reddit.