Bahamian Cuisine

Bahamian cuisine is all about heat, spice and fresh local seafood. These are essential to our diet. Fresh fish, whether it be; grouper, snapper, jacks, grunt are vital to Bahamian the cooking. Fish is served fried, steamed, stewed, boiled. Fish is eaten at all times of the day, for breakfast, brunch or dinner. You have not had Bahamian food if you have not eaten our Boiled Fish with Johnny cake and or grits on the side.

Conch (which is 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 marinated in lime juice and bird or goat peppers. Prepared this way it is called ‘scorch’ (Bahamian word for score). It can also be deep-fried (called "cracked conch"), grilled, steamed, added to soups, salads and stews or made into conch chowder and conch fritters. It is thought to be an aphrodisiac. Nothing washes down a conch salad like a Kalik beer “the real Bahamian beer”.

The Bahamian "lobster" is spiny and without claws. It is served in salads, broiled, cracked or minced. Another delicacy is the land crab, boiled or baked, or cooked in rice. They are plentiful in the summer, especially during Father’s Day.

Many dishes are accompanied by pigeon peas and rice cooked with spices, tomatoes and onions. Peas is also a popular addition to Bahamian soups -- pea soup with dumplings and salt beef and the more universal split pea and ham soup.

Souse is a delicious, rich flavorful soup, unique to the Bahamas and other parts of the West Indies souse (pronounced "sowse") consists of water, onions, lime juice, celery, peppers and meat. The meat added to a souse is often chicken, sheep's tongue, pigs' feet, turkey, conch and mutton. Souse is also served with Johnny cake.

A dessert is not quite Bahamian unless the sweet taste of the coconut or pineapple is added! Coconut can be found in tarts, cakes, pies, pudding, trifle, custard and ice cream and sometimes shredded on top of almost anything! Coconuts are available year-round. Pineapple can be found in tarts, cakes, pies, drinks. Pineapples are plentiful during the summer and a festival is held to honour this welcoming fruit.

Bahamians love to eat and they love their food highly seasoned with salt and pepper.