As a Chinese, I eat to live. Food is an enjoyment in life, not mere nourishment. I was not expecting haute cuisine here in the Bahamas, but the variety and quality that I have experienced so far does not fill me with anticipation for the next meal.
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| Conch salad |
This is conch salad. Conch is on every menu. It is the national dish. Observe that it was served with a dollop of wasabi, not quite sure for what purpose. This conch salad was from the Poop Deck restaurant, right next to the office. The boss was with us, so we forsook the food shack (plastic chairs and dish of the day) and went to this place that overlooks a sandy beach. There was a wedding lunch party on the day, and the table on the veranda overlooking the sea was beautifully set with red roses, silver cutlery and champagne flutes.
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| Poop Deck restaurant, Sandyport, Nassau |
Most dishes in restaurants come with two sides, choices are: macaroni cheese (what?), chips, rice and peas, potato salad, plantain, sweet potato, and salad. They are universal accompaniments. You get them almost everywhere you go. Tap water is called house water. I tried Bahama Mama once and was sick as a parrot afterwards. No wonder, it is a cocktail mixture that features two potent rums, dark rum and 151 proof rum. It was the coffee and coconut liqueurs along with pineapple juice that add that extra tropical touch. I was fooled by the innocent looking tropical colours.
After encountering a conch salad too many, I desperately needed to regain my appetite for food. So I decided to eat some Chinese food. At the Double Dragon restaurant just off Bay Street, they offered a menu in Chinese and I chose the prawn fried noodles. The meal came in a pyrex dish, which was surprise #1. The noodles were thicker than the normal egg noodles, which was surprise #2. Surprise #3 was the service: the food was dropped in front of the diner, without fuss, without hospitality, without a smile. Clearly they were serving the passing trade, the visitors from the cruise ships which docked nearby and would not be coming back any time soon.
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| The Pisces Restaurant at Sun Fun Resort, Cable Beach |
Collette in the office drove me to the Pisces restaurant at the Sun Fun Resort since the food shack up the road from the office was closed due to a funeral (there was a black wreath above the entrance). The menu is on an A4 sheet of paper folded in three. It's honest home cooking, and the quantity of food on one plate is enough to feed a family of four. On the day, the place was nearly empty, as you can see. At one end of the restaurant was a Panasonic plasma TV, broadcasting some American soap. This can only happen at a place where food is secondary to entertainment, and where TV helps the diners to forget about the length of time it takes for a dish to be prepared.
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| Corn Fritters, Bay Street, Nassau |
Just opposite the hotel is Corn Fritters. Garden furniture, laminated menu on an A4 paper, but pleasant staff. On an island, it is surprising that seafood is expensive, maybe there is too much effort involved in catching fish. Disappointingly, the mahi mahi was not available.There was no finesse in the presentation, food was simply piled onto the plate. Minimum effort, maximum gain.
