Cooking Up Conch Salad on Harbour Island





Conch salad  fittingly represents the breezy, easygoing Bahamian lifestyle and you will find the delicacy everywhere on Harbour Island, the tiny island two miles East of Eleuthera. Located along the waterfront, Queen Conch is the Harbour Island headquarters for a daily dose of fresh conch salad.




A conch (konk) is a mollusk that's basically a marine snail.. First the insides are scooped out of the rosy shell.


A special knife is used to scrape the wiggling meat out of the shell, which sometimes hides large pink pearls.


The basic ingredients for a conch salad are tomato, onion, green pepper, lime juice and at Queen Conch, sour orange juice, which is a cross between a lime and an orange.  A special pepper sauce is also added for a zesty kick.

A large knife is used to swiftly cut up all the ingredients before your eyes.


Then the salad is scooped into a plastic container with a spoon. Conch salad is refreshing and mild, it tastes like a chewier verion of ceviche.  Bahamians love conch any kind of way, including conch fritters, cracked conch, conch burgers and conch chowder. The conch is reputed to be an aphrodesiac and is consumed so often that its considered an endagered species throughout the Caribbean. This doesn't stop Harbrour Island natives however, they swear that conch salad is the best way to enjoy their diet staple.
This post is part of Wander Food Wednesdays. Check out the other taste sensations around the world.

Comments

Looks very healthy to eat.
Oh, sour orange juice! I have never seen tha ingredient here in the UK. An essential element of Cuban cuisine, our 'naranja agria' is used in the way your explained in the post and as marinate. I miss it so much.

As a seafood freak, I loved this recipe. Many, many thanks.

Greetings from London.
Fly Girl said…
Tiffany, it is a very healthy, low-calorie dish.

Cubano, I didn't know Cubans used sour orange as well. Maybe you can do an interpretation of this recipe to cure you of homesickness.
LesleyG said…
Mmm, conch. I could use some fritters right now. Yum!

(Just found your blog through Almost Fearless, by the way.)
LongwoodLadyTee said…
That conch salad sure sounds good right about now! I was just in Nassau in October and I am so ready to go back! At the bottom of the bridge, coming back from the Atlantis Hotel/Casino, there are a few little local seafood restaurants. But there is one particular restaurant that serves the best conch salad I have ever tasted! If my Bahamian god-brother Scott, who also makes a pretty good conch salad read this, he would probably disown me! (lol) Of course the name of the restaurant escapes me at this moment but you will know it because there is always a long line of people waiting to be served! We actually waited about 45mins for two very large size bowls of conch salad! I fussed the whole time I waited and vowed never to return, but of course that's a lie! It was simply delicious!
Fly Girl said…
Lesley, I'm glad that my post stirred your taste buds! Thanks for dropping by.

LaTaunja, I don't go to Nassau very often so I don't know which place you're talking about but I'll take your word for it! Thanks so much for visiting my blog.
Jean-Luc Picard said…
What a delight. Very tasty looking!
Ekua said…
Yum! I've been wanting to try conch, since I saw it on the Travel Channel (Anthony Bourdain or Andrew Zimmern or maybe both shows) but only if it was chopped up in small pieces. This looks like a great way to try it! Especially it it's similar to ceviche which I am all of a sudden craving right now ;)
Fly Girl said…
Jean Luc, tasty indeed!

Ekua, chopped up is the best way because it is very chewy. I hope you try some soon.
Are there plenty of these conch on the island? - I'd worry a bit if they were truly endangered there.
Fly Girl said…
Heather, I just learned about the endangered category after I left. There are plenty of conch as you can see from the photo of the pile on the shore but the government has put a limit on the number that foreigners can take.
Mary and Sean said…
Like Ekua, I'm craving a slightly sour ceviche dish right about now thanks to you! How lucky that you get to try all these great seafoods.

Don't you love discovering the flavors and combinations of spices of other countries around the world?
Fly Girl said…
Mary, yes disovering new flavors and food is one of my favorite travel experiences.
i so totally need a beach vacation!!!
Fly Girl said…
Jen, I don't know if you really need a beach vacation after Paris but I always say, you can never have too many adventures.

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