Bites of Nassau Food Tour

I'll have to give my husband credit, he found this food tour online. He told me that all the reviews said it was the best thing to do in Nassau. It didn't take much convincing to decide it was the thing to do on one of our vacation days. The kids even decided they would rather do it than go snorkeling Their comment - "You can snorkel anywhere. We'll try Bahamian food!"

So here's how it turned out. The tour was hosted by TRU Bahamian Food Tours.

First stop was Bahamian Cookin'. It is a hole in the wall restaurant that served wonderful Bahamian food. We learned that conch is the only reliable local source of protein. 90% of the conch from the Bahamas is exported. The Bahamian people are not food self-sufficient yet. The population would starve in about 2 weeks if something happened to their ports.

We tried conch fritters and baked macaroni and cheese. These conch fritters actually had conch ground up in the batter (with a food processor) along with chunks of conch for an extra "conchy" taste. Bahamian macaroni and cheese is typically firm enough to cut into squares and uses eggs to hold it together.

Baked macaroni and cheese and conch fritters

 

Next stop was the Pepper Pot Grill and Juice Bar. Again, a little hole in the wall restaurant with great food. Great Jamaican food. We learned that the original aboriginal population in the Bahamas were all wiped out by disease 25 years after Europeans arrived so there are no real "Bahamians" left. All the people of the Bahamas are descendants of primarily Southern US colonies and Bristish colonists and their slaves. The Bahamas were populated by other islanders too like the Jamaicans so "Bahamian" food is actually a mix of cultures.

 

We had a great "fruit punch" that was a mix of fresh squeezed tropical fruits. It was my older daughter's favorite tasting on the tour.

 

Fruit Punch

 

We also had Jamaican jerk chicken, plantains, and rice and peas. What they call "rice and peas" is what I call red beans and rice. I really learned to like plantains on this trip.

 

 

 

Next stop, Graycliff Chocolatier. Graycliff is actually a famous hotel that has a restaurant, cigar factory and, most recently, a chocolatier. Their chocolates were pieces of art. We got to try the White Chocolate Key Lime chocolates and the Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel chocolates.

 







One of the men in our tour group was admiring his artfully painted dark chocolate when it jumped out of his hand and onto the floor. The group let out a collective gasp. Then my older daughter cried out, "I'll eat it!" Our tour host graciously purchased another piece of chocolate for the poor man.

Isabelle, this photo's for you!

 

Next stop, Van Breugel's Bistro and Bar. This is a restaurant run by a Dutch chef who was trained as a saucier and has Thai influences. We tried coconut curry conch chowder.

 



We the went to Pure Caribbean which is a store that sells spices, tea as well as local art. We tried the very berry lemon tea which got drank before I got a photo op! We also sampled various Caribbean spice rubs and sauces. My younger daughter bought a small painting and my husband bought some tea.

Next we went to Athena Café and Bar. This is a Greek restaurant. The Greeks settled the Bahamas to harvest the sponge beds. They traded the boats they came to the island on for land as they came at a time when many of the original settlers wanted to go back to Europe. The sponges eventually died from a terrible blight but many of the families stayed to form the Greek Bahamian population.

We had a Greek salad and pita bread that was also wonderful.

Our final stop was the  Tortuga Rum Cake Company. This too is a Jamaican company that has spread it's stores to many islands of the Caribbean. We went to the only on-site cakery in the Bahamas. The rum cakes also got snapped up before a photo op. They were delicious.

Tour now over, we browsed the store and bought some coconut rum fudge, made by the same company. I think this was the only disappointment of the day. We opened it up back at our hotel room and it was simply inedible!. I know, inedible chocolate. Hard to believe. It was rock hard and bitter with blooms everywhere. We threw it away!

OK, looks like another beautiful fall Sunday. I'm off to run a 5K that I swore I'd never run again. I'll recap tomorrow. Enjoy your day!