Food
& Drink
There is a wide choice of restaurants and bars
in The Bahamas. Fresh fruit is available from the Out Islands, including
mango, sweet pineapple, breadfruit and papaya. Local drinks in the
Bahamas are based on rum and table service is general in restaurants.
National specialties include Grouper
cutlets, baked crab, rock lobster and red snapper fillets in anchovy
sauce. Peas are used a lot in cooking, in the token
peas & rice, and also in pea soup. Another unique soup
that is definitely worth tasting called souse, consisting purely
of water, onions, lime juice, celery, peppers and meat. Fish
n' grits is worth trying, which is fish cooked with salt
pork, onions, and green peppers served with grits as a morning meal.
Johnnycake is a well known mildly sweet
bread served as a side order. Chicken and dough
(dumplings) is a popular dish, as well as conch,
which is everywhere and is popular in chowder, fritters, salad,
scorched (raw and washed with seawater and lime juice, then rubbed
with hot pepper, topped with fresh tomato and onion slices, served
on a knife or skewer) and stew. Curried mutton
is a dish served which refers to either goat or sheep, and Racoon
stew is another dish frequently on the menu in The Bahamas.
Guava duff is a dessert specialty of The Bahamas,
made with sieved guava pulp, served with hard sauce (a blend of
confectioners' sugar, butter, vanilla, and rum).
The local liqueur is Nassau Royal, which is either
served alone or in coffee. A refreshing alcoholic drink is coconut
water, gin and sweet milk. Kalik is the national
beer of The Bahamas. Besides rum punch, the 3 top tropical island
cocktails are Yellowbird (crème de banana
liqueur, Vat 19, orange and pineapple juice, apricot brandy and
Galliano), Bahama Mama (Vat 19, citrus juice, bitters,
nutmeg, crème de cassis and grenadine) and Goombay
Smash (coconut rum, pineapple juice, lemon juice, triple
sec, Vat 19 and syrup).
The legal drinking age is 18 years old.
Nightlife
Hotels
have nightclubs and bars. Beach parties and discos
are organised on a regular basis. Live entertainment includes goombay
music (traditional Bahamian sound), calypso and limbo dancing. Nightclubs
are found in Freeport and Nassau.
On Paradise Island, Dragons and Atlantis offer nightclubs that serve
up that classic Bahamian fusion of cultures, dance to club
anthems combined with reggae and Bahamian
classics. There are 4 casinos, 1 on Cable Beach, another
on Paradise Island on Grand Bahama, there is a casino in Freeport
and 1 in Lucaya. All casinos feature live entertainment and restaurants.
Shopping
Special
urchases include cutlery, china, leather, fabrics, spirits
from Britain, Swiss watches, Scandinavian glass and silver, German
and Japanese cameras and French perfume. Local products
include all types of seashell jewellery, straw artefacts and woodcarvings.
General shopping hours are Monday to
Friday from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm.
Tipping
15 % is usual for most services including taxis.
However, some hotels and restaurants include service charge on the
bill. Bellboys and porters generally receive US $1 per bag. |
