Kathryn’s Voyage Blog

Publish Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Location: Harbor Island, Eleuthera, Bahama
Coordinates: 25° 29.711′ N 76° 38.319′ W

As most of you know, I thoroughly enjoy food. I truly love everything to do with food; the colors, textures, aromas, creativity, and people. Celebrating food naturally brings people together, whether sharing a meal, sharing ingredients or sharing recipes. Food is a wonderful way to connect to any location, as you can taste the sun, soil and waters in what is produced there.

As you might imagine, seafood is an important part of the

Bahamian culinary scene with conch (giant sea snail) being a leading ingredient . You will traditionally find it served cracked (beaten thin and fried); as fritters (diced small and mixed with some vegetables and binding ingredients, think hushpuppie); in chowder (usually

tomato based, but not always); or as a type of ceviche salad (chopped and combined with the chefs chosen blend of vegetables, citrus juices and spices). Of course, I have tried it all these ways, plus a few more, but my favorite is conch salad. Maybe it is because of the freshness of the ingredients; or, maybe it’s because of the great flair and pride with which it is prepared; or, maybe it’s the humblness of a conch shack that creates something so delicious—whatever, the reason it’s a delight.

Coconut bread is another specialty, generating great pride and competition among bakers of the

various islands. I expected coconut bread to be a quick bread like banana bread, but it is a yeast bread. So far, the coconut

breads we’ve tried are a variation of a traditional raised white bread using coconut milk as the liquid instead of water. From there some bakers add fresh coconut pieces, while others make a coconut paste (think marzipan) and swirl into the bread. As with most breads, some variations are drier and others have an incredibly light crumb. Our two favorite ways to enjoy coconut bread are as simple toast with butter, or on a grilled cheese sandwich. 🙂

One of my favorite food excursions was on Long Island to Max’s Conch Bar. Here met the owner, Gary along with his mom Elva. They had a wonderful garden, and were willing to share their knowledge freely, along with tastes of things I’ve never tried. The most memorable one by far was the fruit called noni (pronounced like nooni). Somethings you must acquire a taste for overtime, others I’m not sure you would ever acquire a taste for. Noni definitely falls into the latter category. The fruit is about the size and shape of a kiwi fruit. The likeness ends right there. The interior has a white creamy look filled with lots of small dark pits. The smell (and I do mean smell) is a combination of strong blue cheese and lindberger cheese (which seems very odd coming from a fruit). The texture is slimy from the white flesh and chewy from the pits. Supposedly consuming this fruit has great health benefits, healing many ills, providing stamina and will add ten years to your life. Having been in marketing, I’m sure that is just a campaign to get people to try and eat the stuff. There is a spirit made from the fruit with the most popular brand hailing from Tahiti. The label has a strong, well-built male blowing his conch horn from a cliff… you get the picture. The spirit taste like raisin juice and Worcheshire sauce, which is definitely better than the natural fruit, but still leaves something to be desired. Of the six of traveling together that day, half of us tried the juice and the fruit. You should have seen our faces. Dick was perfectly clear that it was the vilest thing he ever tasted, I have to agree. However, we have all added at least 15 years to our lives, and after we out live the others, I’m sure we’ll rendez-vous back at Max’s for another shot.

(If Interested, check back for pictures of noni eating in a few days.)