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00:04The best way to experience the true flavor of a place is through its food so I'm off on my
00:11culinary travels again. I'm looking for dishes with a story to tell. It's an aphrodisiac. Traditions
00:24passed down through generations. And the freshest and ziniest of ingredients from land and sea.
00:34So here I am in the Bahamas exploring islands of white sands, turquoise seas and food that is as
00:41vibrant as its people. From hidden beach shacks and fish fries. To fine dining with a Caribbean twist.
00:54Scoop it off. This is the last bottle known to man. Wow. I'm diving headfirst into the flavors,
01:04the colors, and the rhythms of island life. So come on, grab a plate, loosen that belt,
01:11and join me in my quest as I search for a little bit of island zest. Welcome. Taste of the
01:18Bahamas.
01:26The Bahamas is a chain of hundreds of islands and coral shallows in the warm Atlantic Ocean. Just a
01:33short hop from Florida. And right at the heart of it all are Nassau and Paradise Island, my Bahamian base.
01:41Today, I've got a taste for the flavors of Nassau. So I'll be learning a classic Nassau fish recipe.
01:48Right. Special. Special. Special.
01:50Special. And I'll be finding out why conservation is a big deal here. If you want to keep up the
01:56population account, there's rules and regulations you have to go by. And I'll be preparing Bahamian
02:02rum punch chicken wings in my seaside kitchen. A little bit of Nassau thing going on in there.
02:17But first, I'm on a mission to uncover a local tradition that's been part of island life here
02:23for hundreds of years. In Nassau, long before gift shops and postcards, there was straw weaving.
02:30For generations, skilled hands turned palm leaves into baskets, hats and bags. Things people could use
02:37in their daily lives. Do you want to try? I'd love to have a go, but I think I'm going
02:48to mess it up.
02:49What do I have to do? Hold it. Yeah. And bend the string. This one?
02:54Bend it over. Yeah. Go on top of two. Go on top of two. Go on.
02:59Bend it. Yeah. Go on top of two. Today, those skills are being kept alive here at Craft Cottage,
03:06a place where dressmakers, artists and straw weavers can sell their creations and make a living
03:12from their island craft. The woman helping to bring it all together is Nadine Rampal.
03:19Nadine, if I ever wanted to open up a craft shop, it would be something like this, full of colour,
03:25full of tradition, involving everybody in the community. Tell me, is there a market for this type of thing?
03:32Mm-hmm.
03:35Nadine Rampal.
03:35People tend to think, oh, I've got a straw bag already. So what you want to do is to give
03:40them
03:40something they don't have. What are the trends? Give them something that's trending now or give them
03:46something that reminds them of grandma and the island life that they lived before they came to
03:52Nassau and they're working in a big building. How important is that? That is lovely. Yeah.
03:57Really, really lovely. That nostalgia is important. Yeah. And is the tradition continuing?
04:01Rosemary, who, she does the straw plaiting and she has taught classes and she does amazing plaiting.
04:09And it's wonderful for her to be able to continue this kind of traditional work where she can support
04:16her family, but still be at home to take care of somebody who needs it. But there's an appreciation,
04:22a growing appreciation for handmade, for sustainability, and the time is now. People are
04:30coming, becoming aware of the importance of these things again. Ben, Ben, you have to bend this
04:37strength. Okay. To your right. Ah, okay. Go down on one. This is more complicated than using an iPhone.
04:46Yes. Yes. I think we've gone so far away from tradition. I think everybody has been elevated so
04:55high that they've forgotten. But also right now, it's important that we go back to our roots. People are
05:02recognizing that they've gone so far, but this is what is important. There's a feeling and a nostalgia
05:07and an importance to the very basic things that we grew up on. So I think now is the time.
05:13Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with you. And I think that, you know, it's such a speed of life
05:17now. Everything's so instant. And to go through a process like that, to make something like that,
05:23just takes a little bit of time. Time. Time. You've got to find that time and a bit of love.
05:27Yeah. You've given me plenty of that today.
05:30Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.
05:36Now, it's time for lunch and to meet Marcus Samuelsson, an extremely well-traveled chef
05:42who loves life here in the Bahamas. Born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, trained across Europe,
05:49Marcus draws inspiration from food cultures all over the world. Today, I'm going to be cooking along
05:55with him at his fish and chop house restaurant at the Bahama, where local ingredients will take
06:01centre stage. This is going to be all about Bahamian flavours. So coconut rice and a quick pineapple
06:07salsa. Okay. Beautiful. So I got, I got a hot pan here. Okay. You know, just adding in a little
06:13bit of
06:13rice. Okay. Just adding in the rice. All right. You've already got a bit of butter in there melting away,
06:18haven't you? Absolutely. Okay. Lovely. And then I'm just going to add a little stock,
06:24fish stock and coconut milk. Yes. Look at that. Right? Beautiful. Then with that, I'm just going to
06:31add in some fresh herbs. Yeah. Right. And then squeeze in lots of lemon juice in this. Now,
06:37the way you put that kind of rice in there, is that like in the Caribbean or in Jamaica, I
06:41should say,
06:42it's rice and peas, but here it's peas and rice. Peas and rice. Get it right. Get it right. Get
06:46it right.
06:47Peas and rice. Peas and rice. And you use pigeon pea here, right? Yes, absolutely. Instead of the
06:50kidney beans. Absolutely. Beautiful. And it's going to have to be like, almost like,
06:54look at this, how we cook it. Really nice and creamy. It's like a risotto. It is like a risotto.
06:58It's a lighter dish, right? Yeah. Should I get on with this salsa? Get on with the salsa. We got
07:02pineapple. Okay. And then roasted tomatoes, just to coat it. Okay. And a fresh herb oil. So all we're doing
07:09is we're layering in all flavours, right? Okay. Yeah. This food has to be layered with flavour. And so we've
07:16got
07:16that. And then what about this? All the end bits of fresh herbs, right? So cilantro, basil,
07:22a little bit of oil in there. Look at that. And Marcus, what about this beautiful piece of fish?
07:28Look at this, man. So we are grilling that. And first of all, the grouper comes straight fresh from
07:34the ocean, right? Then we dry age it for six, seven days. And then we grill it, slow grill it.
07:42And that's
07:43really nice and beautiful in texture. Smoky, but quite intense too, isn't it? Absolutely.
07:47And the longer it sits on that grill, because it's not really high heat here. It gets that smokiness.
07:52It's really delicious. Beautiful. And here's an example. We're just going to plate that up here.
07:57We call it golden milk, right? What is it? It's a little bit of curry with coconut milk. Think
08:03about it as a French butter sauce, but having that beautiful texture, lightness to it.
08:11All the food has to be flavorful. Does not be spicy, but flavorful, right? Put the fish on the top.
08:16Yes, put the fish. And then we just got that kind of like beautiful little puddle of rice,
08:26right next to it, right there. Simplicity, but beautiful. It looks amazing, the color, isn't it?
08:32That's just fantastic. And then the salsa on top. And I think we got ourselves
08:39a Marcus Bahamas fish dish, right? Special. Special. Special. Look at that, right? Yeah.
08:49I'm going to finish just with the last piece of, just for texture, right? You're going to get a little
08:52bit of those plantain chips. Look at that. Look at that. Doesn't that look beautiful? Absolutely
08:59fantastic. Look at that. What can we say? Yeah, boy. Are you ready? You're ready, man? You're ready, man?
09:05Yeah, man. Let's scoop it up. I love that. With the cooking done, it's time to sit back
09:14and find out more about the inspiration behind Marcus's cooking.
09:19The food and the audience that are here is so international, right? So for me,
09:24the foundation is the incredible seafood ingredients that you have here, whether that's
09:28conch, grouper, snapper, right? That's the base. Coconut, milk, pizza and rice, right? So we stick
09:36into this traditional Caribbean flavor, but then really also spice it up a little bit. Like here,
09:43you have this coconut sauce moment. I call it golden milk, turmeric, a little bit of curry,
09:48because it's a very international audience here. People come from all over the world.
09:53It's a fabulous dish and tastes as good as it looks, and the view isn't bad either, is it?
09:59I've got to say, I've been inspired by cooking with you, by eating with you,
10:04and just what you're bringing to the table, time after time after time, and it's been a pleasure.
10:10My pleasure. All mine.
10:15Coming up, I enjoy the ultimate Nassau dish. 90% of tourists come to the Bahamas,
10:21they want to try it coming. And I add some rom-ponch to my carnival chicken wings.
10:28The smell of that is just fantastic.
10:44Welcome back. Today, I'm getting to know more about life in Nassau.
10:49I've already had a lesson in straw weaving.
10:52This is more complicated than using an iPhone.
10:55Yes. Yes.
10:58I've enjoyed a classic dish prepared by an award-winning chef.
11:03Scoop it up.
11:09But now it's about time I had a taste of the dish that everyone keeps talking about.
11:17Here in the Bahamas, there's plenty of fish and seafood, but there's one shellfish that is the star
11:23of the show. Everywhere I go, people keep telling me, you must tray this dish bun, you must tray this
11:28dish,
11:29because you are in the Bahamas. So, I've come to Arawak Quay to find out what all the fuss is
11:35all about.
11:40It turns out it could all be summed up in one simple word.
11:44Hunk, a sea snail that lives on the seabed.
11:51I'm going to push this butter knife right under here to release it from the shell.
11:55Let's make sure I'll tell you near it.
11:56I can't hear what I am.
11:58One shot.
11:58Yeah, one shot like that.
12:00Yeah, man.
12:01Well, and here he comes. This is the bad boy.
12:03Look at this.
12:04I see.
12:07Hunk grows slowly in shallow, sandy waters, so size really does matter.
12:12Take them too young and you risk losing the conch population.
12:15But look after them properly and there's enough for everyone.
12:19And this is what goes into the salad.
12:21Oh, yes, sir.
12:22And the fritter.
12:23Mmm.
12:24Every ting in Bahamas.
12:25That's a good moment.
12:26Every ting in Bahamas full of conch.
12:28Conch has been part of island cooking for generations.
12:32This bad boy is ready to eat.
12:38Today, I'm going to taste it in a salad prepared by a bit of a legend in these parts,
12:43Goldie Smith, the king of the conch.
12:46He's been serving conch here for 36 years.
12:49And what started as a small stand has grown into a huge restaurant,
12:54literally built on conch shell foundations.
13:00Hey, Goldie, my man. How are you doing?
13:03I'm doing good, man.
13:04Yeah, you're preparing the famous conch salad.
13:06Well, the best.
13:07How do you say it's the best? Who tells you it's the best?
13:10I mean, sure, most of my customers come every day.
13:14When you're running through a couple of hundred conchs a day,
13:17I must be doing something good.
13:19Yeah.
13:20Conch salad is always in demand here, but the conch is protected.
13:23The phrase you keep hearing is conch-servation.
13:27Well, they have a law here in the Bahamas where you can't catch undersized conch.
13:30If you caught, you'll be fine, you know, and I agree with that 100% because
13:35if you want to keep up the population of conch, you have to...
13:38There's rules and regulations you have to go by.
13:41You understand? The big conch we collect, the smaller we live,
13:44and when we go back after a few months or one or two years, they're ready to harvest.
13:50Yeah.
13:50And it looks like this conch salad is ready to eat.
13:55So let's go outside and eat this good conch salad.
13:58Yeah, go on, show me the way.
13:59Let's go.
14:00Yeah, wow.
14:04Ah, and what better way to enjoy it than outside on the deck?
14:09You know what? This is as Bahamian as it gets.
14:13Sunsea and citrusy conch salad.
14:17You know, in Britain, we have things like roast beef or fish and chips,
14:21and in the Bahamas, it's all about the conch, isn't it?
14:23Well, you know, because in the Bahamas conch,
14:25everybody knows it's a national dish for the Bahamian people and tourists,
14:28and it's also an aphrodisiac.
14:31So 90% of tourists come to the Bahamas, they want to try a conch.
14:36Especially when they're here, it's an aphrodisiac.
14:39I don't know about its aphrodisiac qualities,
14:41but I can certainly vouch for how delicious it is.
14:45It's wonderful, it's fresh, it's vibrant, it's got a lovely kick to it.
14:49I love the little bit of the pepperiness that you get from the goat pepper.
14:53It's just lovely, really, really lovely.
14:55It's no surprise that people keep coming back to Goldie's.
14:58Yeah, man, come down to Arawakki.
15:01I'm glad you enjoyed it.
15:05Thank you very much. God bless you.
15:07Cheers.
15:11Sadly, a few weeks after we filmed here,
15:14Goldie's conch house was badly damaged by fire.
15:17But Goldie and his team are determined to rebuild and reopen in 2026.
15:29Having finally tasted a classic conch salad,
15:32I'm feeling inspired to come up with a Nassau-style dish of my own.
15:36And I thought, what could I do to capture that wonderful Bahamian flavour?
15:41Carnival rompun's chicken wings with some nice zesty corn and a Nassau potato salad.
15:50It's the chicken wings here.
15:51And I'm just going to pop that straight into my pan here.
15:57And then to that, I'm going to spice it up a little bit.
16:00And I've got some bit of a paprika there.
16:06Along with some, uh, the old allspice.
16:09I've crushed down those berries and we're capturing that lovely flavour.
16:13A bit of nutmeg, a bit of cinnamon, a bit of claw of everything in there.
16:18Ah, lovely.
16:19OK. And finally, some of that garlic powder.
16:23That's it.
16:24And then I'm just going to rub those spices into those wings.
16:32OK. Yeah, really mix it round so you get that flavour really penetrates and get under that skin.
16:40All right.
16:41That's beautiful.
16:43That's it.
16:44Look at that.
16:45That mixed in really well.
16:46All of the wings have got some of that spice on it.
16:50And then what I'm going to do afterwards, look here.
16:52What I've got here is some cornflour, baking powder and a little bit more paprika.
16:58And I'm just going to mix those together.
17:01And the reason I've done it this way round is because I wanted to rub those spices well into
17:06my meat first.
17:08And then this will create a nice toffee kind of pop taste to the chicken.
17:16Crispin it up beautifully.
17:17That's it.
17:20And now I'm just mixing all those flavours together.
17:23Adding a little bit of salt.
17:25Yeah boy.
17:26A little bit of pepper and a touch of oil.
17:31Guys, the smell of that is just fantastic.
17:36That really captures a bit of the old flavours of the Caribbean.
17:42Or should I say, a little bit of Nassar ting going on in there.
17:47My spice-coated chicken wings are ready for the barbecue.
17:59I'm going to close the lid, leave them in there, and every now and then you just roll them over
18:03and you'll see them crisper and brown up and all the flavour will be inside.
18:08Really, really lovely.
18:09Now for those zesty corn cobs.
18:12Ah, what could be simpler?
18:13I've got a bit of butter that I'm going to mash down a little bit, soften.
18:17What am I going to soften it with?
18:19A little touch of the old cayenne.
18:23That's it.
18:26And a little bit of lime juice too.
18:32I'm mixing some of that lime juice and a bit of that cayenne pepper into the butter.
18:38And then you take the corn and we're just rubbing that through it like that.
18:43Just a little bit of that.
18:45That's beautiful.
18:47Now I'm taking my corn which I've cooked in boiling water for about eight to ten minutes
18:52and I'm popping them into that lovely spiced butter and then it's straight onto the barbie.
19:02Look at that, beautiful.
19:04Let's turn over our chicken, shall we?
19:07Wow, that chicken's looking good, isn't it?
19:11Absolutely lovely.
19:12The corn is glazing up really lovely.
19:15And now we can crack on with the Nassau potato salad.
19:20Ah, check this out guys.
19:21Look, that's potatoes, pre-cooked potatoes there.
19:25I've also got my eggs cooked.
19:26Now what they do here, which is fantastic, is they boil up your potatoes just boiling away
19:31and they take the egg in the shell and they throw it in 15 minutes before the potatoes are cooked.
19:36It all just cooks together.
19:38Fantastic.
19:38Take it out, take off the shell and bang.
19:41There you have it, ready to go into your potato salad.
19:44All right, so we chop this up.
19:48I've kept one of the eggs back because I'm going to sprinkle that on top later.
19:52But look, you see what I mean?
19:54Just so, so simple and lovely.
19:57Now I'm going to take some mayonnaise and to that I'm going to add a pinch of cayenne pepper,
20:02some mustard, a little bit of sugar, lime juice and then just blend it all together.
20:09That's it, beautiful.
20:11Now in with the chopped egg and potato.
20:17And then guys, check this out.
20:19This is what makes the Bahamian salad so different is that they incorporate things like chopped peppers into it, a
20:27bit of onion, parsley.
20:29I've got some scotch bonnet pepper and garlic there and celery too.
20:32All of that loads of crunch, loads of flavour go into your potato salad.
20:38Let's do it.
20:39There you go.
20:42Salad ready, wings almost done.
20:44All I need now is my carnival rum punch sauce.
20:49We've got loads of fruit going in there, a bit of citrus, pineapple, mango, spices,
20:54honey and of course some rum too.
20:56All that's blitzed down into your food processor.
20:59Then after that you just add everything else, bring it to the boil, reduce it down for about 10 minutes,
21:04take it off, let it rest and then pour that on top of your beautiful chicken wings.
21:10Hey, time to bring it all together.
21:12My barbecued corn, my spicy toffee popped chicken, my eggs and potato side dish and my sweet Bahamian sauce.
21:21And here's your order, your carnival rum punch chicken wings with some zesty corn and a Nassau potato salad.
21:32What a combo and what a way to round off my latest flavour adventure.
21:38You know, today's really showed me the heart of the Bahamas, the craft, the cooking, the community.
21:44It's just made me feel so much more connected with this place.
21:50Special.
22:07Check out the video.
22:07Check out the update.
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