"From space, the Bahamas is the most beautiful place on Earth."
Chris Hadfield
Technically we are still not in the Caribbean when we look at The Bahamas. In this satellite photograph you can see the vast area that the Bahamas cover - some 800 kms from north to south. The land at the top left of this photograph is Florida and to the south it's Cuba which is at the edge of the Caribbean. The Bahamas are still in the Atlantic. They contain 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago land area and 88% of its population. There are 700 islands and 2,400 cays, 20 of which are inhabited - a cay being "a tiny, low-lying sandy island or reef".
They are low lying, having been formed from pieces breaking off the super continent of Pangaea. Which means, of course, that it would be one of the parts of the world most threatened by climate change, both because of the rising water level and also because of the increase in major storms.
The capital Nassau is not actually on the largest island, but on that blue island on this map in the middle near the top. On the edge of the deep ocean trench which shows as that very dark blue patch in the satellite picture above.
It's now a part of the British Commonwealth but independent, and gets most of its not inconsequential income from tourists and financial services - i.e. it's a tax haven.
Historically speaking this is where Columbus first hit land in 1492 on the island of San Salvador, although they are now not sure which island that is. Somewhere in the Bahamas however. At the time it was inhabited by the Taíno who came from Cuba and Hispaniola, and were later named the Lucayans. However, when the Spanish took over they either died from imported diseases or were exported as slaves to the plantations of Hispaniola, so that between 1513 and 1648 there was virtually nobody on the islands. However, in the 17th century some British from Bermuda - Puritans seeking greater religious freedom - settled there and eventually the British who were cleaning up the area from the pirates who used the Bahamas as a haven, took over, imported American loyalists and slaves from the plantations there and ruled it until independence in 1964. The descendants of the slaves now represent some 90% of the local population.
But what do they eat? Well somewhat controversially the big thing is this sea creature - the world's largest sea snail the conch - pronounced 'konk'. Controversially because, of course, it's being overfished and going extinct. Indeed it went extinct in Florida, which is part of the problem - and the other areas where it has disappeared as well, because the Bahamians export there and illegal boats from some of those places come and fish in the Bahamas. It's a national dish though - well at least three national dishes, and of course the tourists clamour for it. The dishes are Conch salad - a kind of ceviche (raw fish, lightly pickled with citrus); Conch fritters for which the meat of the animal is chopped, mixed with spices and things like onion and garlic, dipped in batter and fried; and cracked conch which is also a batter deep fried thing, but this is just the conch which has been pounded to tenderise it.
Rock lobsters and crab are also popular with the crab sometimes being stuffed and baked. And there's also a fish stew - which "includes onion, bacon, potato, a touch of tomato paste, carrot, celery, and fresh herbs, including island-grown thyme." It's a kind of bouillabaisse I suppose although, of course as with all such dishes everyone has their own version.
Another kind of soup sounds much less attractive though - Souse - and there's a coincidence because of yesterday's soused herrings. This is a brothy kind of soup which one website said was made with offal of various kinds although this version, and I suspect the versions made for tourists is made with chicken wings.
For the rest I present Johnny cake which is more like a bread than a cake; peas 'n' rice made with brown pigeon peas and a side dish found all around this area, guava duff - a steamed pudding that encases guava, cinnamon and allspice and is covered with a rum sauce. Last, but apparently not least is a baked version of mac 'n' cheese that includes jalapeno peppers. Now that must have come from the American tourists surely.
Next time it's Cuba which may be somewhat more varied, because it's much larger. We shall see. I guess if you are living on tiny forested islands, there is probably not much else to eat other than what you can find in the sea. And all those cashed up Americans are probably staying in luxurious resorts or sumptuous villas with their own personal chef, and eating universal haute cuisine, whilst the poorer tourists are eating hamburgers and pizza. I wonder. And do the natives prosper from all of this or is it just a few fat cats? Beautiful place though.
POSTSCRIPT ON MY BOOK
I've finished my book which became even weirder as it went along. So much so that at times I wondered why I was reading on. And then I found this in a Guardian review:
"Even when I wasn’t quite sure what Thirlwell was doing, or why he was doing it, I was never in any doubt that he was very good at it." Mark O'Connell/The Guardian
Which sort of summed it up, although somebody else said that in spite of all the amazing things going on in the plot it was sort of boring. And I can see that too. I nearly chose it for my book group book. I'm glad I didn't. I'm pretty sure they would all have hated it. I'm glad I read it however. It was indeed completely different from anything else I have read. Somewhat disorienting. And I shan't be throwing it out.
YEARS GONE BY
March 6
2024 - Do, should teenagers cook?
2023 - Do as you're told
2022 - Nothing
2021 - Ordinary
2020 - Deleted
2019 - Lucky dip - a recipe - (Baby carrot tagine with yoghurt and honeyed pine nuts)
2018 - Nothing
2017 - Potatoes and the Irish
Comments