The Burning Spot

So we left Delilah to drag anchor without us, and we wandered into Nassau looking for some eats. We were outside the main touist area, looking for a place recommended in our guidebook. A man stepped up and said, "You look like you're searching for something and can't find it." I, being suspicious, said, "Ahhhh, no. Just wandering." Jill, being naive, said, "We're looking for a restaurant called Crocodiles. Is it still around?"

I was, naturally, prepared for a hard sell of one kind or another. The guy said, "No, it's not around anymore. If you want some good sit-down food, you can go there," pointing a few stores down to a place with smoked glass windows where one has to be buzzed in. "It's like a Bahamian Denny's. But if you want a real local thing," he pointed to a row of colorfully-painted, open shacks down near the river, under the bridge that leads to Atlantis, a monstrosity of a hotel, "go right down there. They serve conch, fish, etc." We thanked him, and then he got in his car and left. So I was wrong, and he was just a nice guy, trying to help.

The shacks were a marvel. We stopped first at The Burning Spot for some conch salad. The conch was pulled from its shell still alive, and it was chopped with fresh vegetables and citrus and turned into a ceviche right there by a wizened old man with a wickedly sharp knife who didn't even look down as he sliced. Delicious. Meanwhile, the locals were wandering around with bottles of beer, wine, rum, and what have you, getting lit and swearing like sailors. There was a heated game of dominos at one table, the violent BOOM of dominos punctuating their conversation. Laughing, yelling, swearing, full of raw energy. Sweet. Then, as we were ponderng what to get next, another guy sitting at a table spotted us and steered us to the window of his favorite joint. We ordered a fish dinner. The fish was served whole, eyes and all, and was amazing. We think it was grouper. The dinner included sides of plantains, coleslaw, and rice. I ate up the entire experience.

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