 An unforgettable way to experience Bahamian culture is through your taste buds. Bahamian cuisine is available across a vast array of venues including roadside, beach side, or in fine-dining establishments with a host of international cuisine. Sample or outright feast, either way you are in for a treat. Remember, this is vacation.
Although virtually any type of international food can be found, it would be a mistake to miss an opportunity to sample the local cuisine. There are plenty of restaurants serving Bahamian cuisine and fresh local seafood and at very reasonable prices.
Seafood is the staple of the Bahamian diet. Conch, pronounced konk, is a large type of ocean mollusk that has firm, white, peach-fringed meat. Fresh, uncooked conch is delicious; the conch meat is scored with a knife, and lime juice and spices are sprinkled over the meat. It can also be deep-fried, otherwise known as cracked conch, steamed, added to soups, salads and stews or made into conch chowder and conch fritters. The Bahamian Rock Lobster is a spiny variety without claws that is served broiled, minced or used in salads. Other delicacies include boiled or baked land crabs, the very ones seen running across the roads after dark.
Fresh fish also plays a major role in Bahamian cuisine and dishes. A popular brunch is boiled fish served with grits, and when done right, is often the most flavorful way to enjoy the taste of a fresh catch. Stewed fish, made with celery, onions, tomatoes and various spices, is another local specialty. Many dishes are accompanied by pigeon peas, the infamous peas 'n' rice served throughout the Caribbean, with spices, tomatoes and onions and rice.
Peas are also utilized prominently in the wide array of fragrant Bahamian soups, pea soup with dumplings and salt beef and of course, the very familiar split pea and ham soup are just two of the many pea-based broths. One soup unique to the Caribbean and Bahamas is the souse, said sowse, where the only ingredients are water, onions, lime juice, celery, peppers and meat; no thickeners are added. The meat added to a souse is often chicken, sheep's tongue, oxtail or pigs' feet giving the souse a delicious, rich flavor, unique to many visitors.
The cuisine of the Islands is never bland. Spicy, subtly and uniquely flavored with local meats and produce, more than any other cuisine in the West Indies, Bahamian cooking has been influenced by the American South. One very popular example of this influence is fish 'n' grits.
Both alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks are a highly developed specialty in the Bahamas as well. Bars pride themselves developing their own special rum punch concoctions. Kalik, the Islands beer, is unusually light and wheaty, served well-chilled to wash down the day's heat. The Bahamian refresher of choice is coconut water blended with sweet milk and gin. There are those who swear that Switcher, made with native limes, tastes better than any other citrus drink. |
