Arawak Cay (Fish Fry)

A man-made island just west of downtown, lined with two dozen open-air seafood shacks painted in bright Caribbean colours. Fish Fry, as everyone calls it, is where Nassau itself eats — the cracked conch, fried snapper, grouper sandwiches, conch salad, and Kalik beer are the same prices that locals pay. Twin Brothers and Goldie's are the long-running favourites.

Lunch and dinner are both good times to come. Saturday and Sunday nights bring live rake-and-scrape bands, conch-salad demonstrations at the front stalls, and a much heavier crowd. The best food is the conch salad prepared in front of you with raw conch, citrus, peppers, and onion — a kind of Bahamian ceviche. Order it spicy.

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A story
Arawak Cay was reclaimed from the harbour in 1969 to dump dredge spoil from the deepening of the cruise-ship channel. The food stalls grew up organically in the 1980s as a way for fishermen returning from the Out Islands to sell their catch directly — a piece of Caribbean urban planning that was not planned at all.

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