Bahamian outdoor food
Feature_WeekendIdyll_DGJul09
Weekend idyll
Bahamian outdoor food
Most days, the Western Esplanade is a quiet open space a few minutes walk from downtown Nassau. At midday there are always a few Bahamians munching on sandwiches or resting in their cars until it’s time to go back to work.
You’ll see tourists and locals strolling along the seafront, on their way to or from the restaurants at the Fish Fry on nearby Arawak Cay. You might see the four ancient cannon along West Bay Street, still trained on the approaches to Nassau Harbour, recalling a time three centuries ago when British marines stood ready to defend the island against attacks by Spanish and French invaders.
But today, on most weekends, the Esplanade is transformed into a vast and peaceful gathering place where Bahamian families and friends relax.
While kids frolic on the nearby beach, parents get together to talk, groove to the reggae beat from boom boxes, play dominoes in the shade, snooze and otherwise enjoy a day off beside the sea.
A big part of the day’s fun is to chow down on homemade food and sip ice-cold Bahamian beer or sky juice—a much favoured local cocktail of gin and coconut water sometimes called “gully wash.” Sky juice is prepared with gin (leaded) or without (unleaded).
Visitors are welcome, and many line up with Bahamians at the cooking tents and trailers on Saturdays and Sundays—lured by the drifting clouds of grilling smoke and the tantalizing aromas of jerk chicken, barbecued ribs, Caribbean lobster and, of course, conch.
If you want to sample down-home Bahamian cooking and mingle with friendly Bahamians, drop by one of the tented cookouts on the Western Esplanade and enjoy.
Bahamians love conch
If you are like most visitors from northern climes, you’ll be bemused by the Bahamian weakness for conch, a mollusc in a large spiral shell, which is the unofficial national dish of The Bahamas—even though it’s basically tasteless. Tasteless, that is, until it’s prepared in one of the many ways that versatile Bahamian cooks have perfected over the years.
One of the healthiest ways is in conch salad, a mixture of raw conch, sweet peppers, onions and tomatoes—all diced—with hot pepper to taste and drenched in orange and lime juice. Bahamians also dote on scorch conch—scored, marinated or soaked with lime and eaten raw.
There’s also conch fritters (diced, folded into a batter and deep fried), crack’ conch (tenderized, breaded and deep fried), conch souse (in a soup with potatoes and peppers), steam’ conch (cooked with onion, tomato paste, thyme and peppers) and stew’ conch (cooked in a savoury roux-based sauce).
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