It is common at affairs to serve as an hors d’oeuvres crackers with pieces of fish on them. Which Beracha or Berachot does one recite over this food item?
It is clear that if one is interested mainly in the fish, and he eats the cracker only because the fish is too salty to be eaten on its own, then he recites only "She’hakol" over the fish, and this Beracha covers both the fish and the cracker. In such a case, the cracker is clearly subordinate to the fish, and thus the Beracha recited on the fish covers both.
Generally, however, people are equally interested in eating both the fish and the cracker. Therefore, the Mishna Berura (Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin, 1839-1933) writes (168:45) that one must recite two Berachot – "Mezonot" over the cracker, and "She’hakol" over the fish. Even though normally a "Mezonot" food is always considered the primary component in a mixture, and thus the Beracha of "Mezonot" would ordinarily cover all components, the Mishna Berura writes that this rule applies only if the various foods are cooked or baked together. Here, the cracker and fish were placed one on top of the other, and were not baked together, and therefore two separate Berachot are required.
Hacham Ovadia Yosef, however, disputes this ruling. In his work Yabia Omer (vol. 7, 33:4), he writes that the Beracha of "Mezonot" covers all foods in the mixture even if they had not been cooked or baked together. Therefore, one who eats a cracker with fish on top recites only one Beracha – "Mezonot" – which covers both the cracker and the fish.
Summary: One who eats a cracker with fish on top recites the Beracha of "Mezonot" which covers both the cracker and the fish, unless he eats the cracker only because the fish is too salty to be eaten alone, in which case he recites only "She’hakol."
