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Dis Bahamian food t’ing
Grits, conch, souse, peas ’n rice, guava duff
From Asian culinary delights to spicy West Indian fare, you’ll find all your favourite international dishes here, but for a true taste of The Bahamas you can skip those swanky restaurants for once and chow down on traditional Bahamian fare.
Island cuisine is a tantalizing blend of spicy flavours and basic ingredients, all guaranteed to leave your taste buds wanting more. It’s no-frills, down-home cooking at its best, with fresh seafood featured prominently in many dishes.
Whether you crave something aromatic, sweet, tart or spicy, there’s a local dish to please every palate.
All in a stew
A standard hotel breakfast may include bacon and eggs, toast, pancakes, waffles or just a muffin and coffee. Although many islanders consume such fare at home and at restaurants, others prefer to start their day with a traditional dish.
For Bahamians, breakfast might consist of boil’ or stew’ fish or a bowl of souse (rhymes with house) served with johnny cake or hot hominy grits (ground corn kernels, boiled).
Grits has always been a mainstay of The Bahamas. During the plantation era, slave owners provided their workers with rations of grits. To this day grits are served with many Bahamian breakfasts such as steam’ sausage, sardines, mackerel or tuna. Roadside vendors sell a breakfast like this for as little as 99 cents up to four dollars.
Also popular at breakfast is souse, a soup that’s unique to The Bahamas. Relatively easy to prepare, souse may be made with chicken, sheep tongue, pigs’ feet or mutton boiled in water with lime juice, salt, white potatoes (optional), onions and peppers.
Prepared in a similar way is a meal of boil’ fish in a zesty stock. This soup can pack a spicy punch, depending on how much hot pepper the cook adds.
Another authentic dish is peas soup and dough. This hearty soup is made with pigeon peas, salt beef, tomatoes and potatoes, along with onions, celery, sweet pepper and dumplings, known as doughboys.
One must sometimes overlook the names of Bahamian dishes in order to enjoy them. Despite being called “crab fat and dough” or “smudda fish,” they’re delicious and satisfying meals. Smudda means the fish is spiced and pan fried separately and then smothered in a savoury tomato-based sauce.
Convertible conch
The main ingredient of several famous Bahamian dishes is conch, pronounced “konk.”
A staple of the Bahamian diet, the queen conch is a mollusc, a marine invertebrate animal belonging to the phylum mollusca, a term derivedfrom the Latin word mollis, meaning “soft.” It is abundant in seagrass beds in the warm, shallow waters of The Bahamas.
Since conch has the consistency of calamari, it is often tenderized by pounding it with a mallet.
Conch salad, a signature Bahamian recipe, is made with diced fresh conch mixed with chopped tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, bell peppers and hot bird pepper to taste, all drenched with sour orange and lime juice.
To get a taste of freshly made conch salad, you can go to one of the native-style eateries on Arawak Cay, just west of downtown, or to one of the vendors’ stands on Potter’s Cay, located under the Paradise Island exit bridge.
Crack’ conch is made with the tenderized meat battered and deep-fried. Conch fritters are a mixture of diced meat folded into a batter and deep-fried.
Another variation is called scorch’ conch, which is raw, scored with a knife and drenched in citrus juice.
Conch chowder is a combination of chopped conch, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes simmered into a thick, seasoned soup. All of these specialities can be found on the menu of most Bahamian restaurants.
Crawfish and crab
Conch isn’t the only seafood used in many old-time Bahamian recipes. Almost as adaptable as conch is the Bahamian spiny lobster, known as crawfish in the islands. It can be boiled, broiled, battered and deep-fried like crack’ conch or minced for salads.
Another yummy dish, baked land crab, is a savoury stuffing placed in cleaned crab shells and baked.
Other delicacies include boil’ crab, where the crab is boiled in seasoned water and served hot with bread. Bahamians crack open the shell and dunk the bread into the flavourful juice inside.
Many entrées are served with a crab and rice mixture or with a combination of pigeon peas and browned rice–the famous peas ’n rice dish that is served throughout the Caribbean– flavoured with tomato and onions. In the crab dish, the fat gives the rice colour and flavour.
Being a maritime people, Bahamians love fish. A typical Sunday dinner often includes fried grouper, snapper or jack, peas ’n rice, baked macaroni and cheese, potato salad and sweet fried plantains. These carb-heavy meals are not for waist-watchers.
For simple, everyday meals, Bahamians may prepare corned beef and white rice–a dish known as “fire
engine.” It’s a quick, inexpensive meal in which minced corned beef is cooked in a frying pan with onions, green pepper and thyme, with some tomato paste or catsup added to enhance the color. Some Bahamians serve this basic dish with a large avocado, called pear in The Bahamas.
Sweet treats
Bahamians will tell you that guava duff is the best dessert ever created. It’s made by spreading guava fruit on a flat piece of dough and rolling it up to form a loaf. Many cooks then encase the roll in foil and boil it, but it can be steamed or baked.
This rich dessert isn’t for calorie-counters. Guava duff is served with a rich sauce that is a blend of strained guava pulp, sugar and butter, often spiked with rum or brandy.
Other sweet treats are peanut and benny (sesame seed) cake, sugar-coated tamarind balls and coconut and pineapple tarts, cakes and pies.
For a true taste of Bahamian culinary culture, sample some of these delectable dishes while you’re here. Bon appétit!
Sidebar:
Bahamians dote on conch chowder, a hearty thick soup. Here is one popular variation.
1 cup diced conch
1⁄2 cup diced potatoes
1⁄4 cup chopped celery
1⁄4 cup diced onions
1⁄4 cup diced carrots
1⁄4 cup chopped sweet pepper
1⁄4 cup peeled whole tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
1⁄4 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cups fish stock or water
In a small pot heat oil, add conch and sauté until natural juices are rendered, 2-3 mins. Add tomato paste and cook 3-5 mins.
Add other herbs and vegetables, cook 2-3 mins. Cover with fish stock, stir. Cover and cook slowly 10-15 mins or until potatoes and carrots are cooked. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serves four.
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Dis Bahamian food t’ing
Grits, conch, souse, peas ’n rice, guava duff
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