Tainha

Grilled whole over coals with nothing but citrus at the table, the Santa Catarina default.

Rubbed into the flesh before the grill, cutting through an oilier fish than most white fish gets credit for.

Salted and sun-dried, the whole fish keeps for months the way the roe alone usually does.

Dusted and pan-fried, a coarse coating is the coastal answer to a fish this fatty.

Warmth against an oily, mild flesh that takes seasoning better than most farmed fish.

The roe, pressed and cured, is eaten shaved over the oil the way bottarga is everywhere else.

Heat cuts a fattier fish than the plate usually holds, the beach-stall move.

Shaved cured roe over a simple plate is the same idea Sicily has for its own mullet, unclaimed here.

A crisp glass against an oily roe most Brazilian kitchens still treat as a byproduct.