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Haute Bahamian
DINING & ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE - JULY 2007
Haute Bahamian
Native foods become delicacies
Great cuisine is often a case of necessity being redefined as good taste. From tête de veau (a French dish that would make Hannibal Lecter blanch) to the ?mannish water? of the Caribbean (the head, hooves and organs of a goat boiled up into a soup), things that people were once forced to eat to stay alive became, over time, today?s delicacies.
Conch, for example, is a sea mollusc whose appeal for early Bahamians was that it could be easily collected, dried and stored for times when bad weather made fishing impossible. That?s how it earned the nickname ?hurricane ham.? Today, it?s consumed with passion?and national pride?throughout the islands, in a multitude of ways.
Crack? conch (battered and deep fried), and conch salad (cut up raw and mixed with tomatoes, onions, green peppers, hot pepper and doused with lime or sour orange juice) can be found in any roadside cafe in The Bahamas. But the humble mollusc also keeps more elevated company.
Conch chowder appears on the most select menus in Nassau, from Café Martinique and Seafire Steakhouse on Paradise Island to Compass Point out west and Sun and... in the east.
Award-winning chef Ronny Deryckere has been serving conch chowder at Sun and... for 26 years
and is such a fan of the mollusc?s mild taste that he has invented new ways to enjoy it. To make conch mousse, for example, Deryckere chills conch meat in a freezer until it is almost solid before passing it first through a grinder and then a food processor. ?That way you get a true purée, not bits and pieces,? he says. He then lightens the mixture with cream, finely chopped vegetables and thyme. ?It?s like a classic fish mousse,? he says, ?but the conch gives it a unique sweetness.?
Bahamian flavours
Deryckere first came to Nassau from his native Belgium in 1966, and was immediately struck by the local flavours. ?They reminded me of northern Africa, and a little of southern France,? he says, noting the prevalence of tomatoes, peppers and thyme?a Mediterranean herb suited to thin soils and hot climates.
Many of his dishes, such as a spiny lobster bisque that he describes as ?much stronger, more lobster-flavoured than the European,? apply the techniques of fine French cookery to Bahamian ingredients.
A perennial favourite at his restaurant is guava soufflé, a light variant of the popular steamed or boiled Bahamian bread pudding called guava duff. For those who want something more substantial for dessert, yet more rarefied than the original, he also makes a guava cheesecake.
?People think Bahamas food has to be simple,? says Deryckere, ?but it can also be refined. You can put in
the same effort [to make it] as you would in a top French restaurant. It?s haute Bahamian!?
Nobu?s shabu-shabu
When Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, founder of the world-famous Nobu chain of restaurants, came to Nassau to check out Bahamian foods, he found that some of the most sought-after local ingredients were not suitable for a Japanese style of presentation.
?He tried grouper, he tried Bahamian lobster, but it seems that warm water fish do not make such good sashimi; they come up too watery,? says Hisashi Eda, chef at Nobu in Atlantis.
But after sampling a conch salad, Nobu-san was inspired to create a special dish based on shabu shabu?an onomatopoeic Japanese name for a meat delicacy, which comes from the sound made by dipping a piece of beef quickly in hot broth. For the cold conch shabu shabu, thin slices of conch are dipped in hot water for a second and then plunged into iced water.
?Cold shabu shabu is only served here, and nowhere else in the world,? says Hisashi.
Most of the top-class restaurants in The Bahamas pride themselves on their lobster and grouper dishes. And many of them take the view that over-elaborating on such fine food
is pointless.
Surf ?n? turf is a signature dish at many restaurants, including Compass Point on the northwest coast. Columbus Tavern on Paradise Island, prides itself on lobster thermidor, sautéed in cream, herbs and parmesan cheese and served back in its shell with a toasted parmesan crust. And Seafire Steakhouse serves lobster tail with drawn butter and Andros limes.
This is not to say that high-end ingredients stop a chef from using his or her imagination. Dexter Wilson, at Columbus Tavern, has a signature dish of grouper fillet stuffed with crab meat and served in a lobster bisque sauce, and Café Martinique?s Jean-Georges Vongerichten confects a delicate French- and Asian-inspired lobster tartine with lemon grass and fenugreek broth and pea shoots.
Homage to peas ?n rice
When American celebrity chef Bobby Flay opened his new Mesa Grill at Atlantis in 2007, he wanted to pay homage to that most homely of Bahamian staples, peas ?n rice.
Flay says he relished ?the opportunity to bring my style of southwestern cuisine, combined with the ingredients and flavours of the islands.?
The Tex-Mex tang to his peas ?n rice comes from a portion of cilantro pesto, and his Bahamian spiced chicken skewers with mango vinaigrette likewise have the hot edge taken off with a cilantro-yogurt sauce.
At Blue Lagoon at Club Land?Or on Paradise Island, Barry McPhee likes to bring a Creole note to his cooking, whether it?s a snapper in spicy breadcrumbs with tomato and mushroom Cajun sauce, or a chicken stuffed with shrimp and pimentos.
McPhee does not forget his Bahamian roots, though. When he minces the meat of a Caribbean spiny lobster, steams it and serves it back in its shell, there is the pungent note of thyme rising from the tomato-based sauce.
He doesn?t stop at traditional ingredients when he pushes the boundaries of Bahamian cuisine, either. Sitting over a bottle of Bahamian Kalik beer, he confides that the brew ?is better than wine for cooking with, you know? Sometimes for a chef?s special I?ll make a Kalik fish, in a beer-clarified butter-and-caper sauce.? Another special along similar lines is his tuna, seared in a variety of flavoured Bahamian rums.
Keeping it simple
Experimenting at Blue Lagoon is confined to dinner. For breakfast, the restaurant serves hearty local fare such as boil? fish and chicken souse, with hominy grits or johnny cake. ?It?s simple food,? says McPhee, ?but it still has to be done right.?
In the words of the elite Graycliff restaurant?s head of cuisine, Joshua Campbell, ?You don?t mess with a Bahamian?s food.?
Campbell came to Graycliff from Harbour Island where he began experimenting with ?real Bahamian fusion cuisine.? Among his innovations is a conch salad made with caramelized pineapple and a peas ?n rice risotto. When he invented it, ?They looked at me like I was crazy,? he says today.
Nevertheless, guests at Graycliff who ask for a Bahamian twist on the restaurant?s Mediterranean-themed menu will be gladly accommodated. ?We?re just not going to press the issue,? says Campbell.
Imagination on tap
One chef who would love to be asked to weave flights of fancy on a Bahamian theme is James Grant at Chez Willie on Bay St. ?Boil? fish is the Bahamian bouillabaisse,? he says, ?so why not use all the same juices but add a little shrimp, scallop and mussel to turn it around.?
With the addition of leeks and cream he would nudge a chicken souse in the direction of a delicate waterzooï (a classic Belgian stew or soup).
And his plans for the humble johnny cake are a revelation. ?I?d make it thinner than normal and bake it covered with a coconut cream, then scatter it with shredded coconut just before it finished cooking,? he says.
?There are so many possibilities, and so many good chefs in The Bahamas. All people need to do is ask to find out what we?re capable of.?
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