Conch salad is sometimes called the national dish of the Bahamas. The key ingredient is queen conch, which has a mild, slightly sweet flavour a bit like calamari or clam. The conch meat is cut into tiny pieces and then 'cooked' not by heat but by the acid in the lime and orange juice — a technique called ceviche that is used in many tropical countries around the world.
The pepper added to conch salad is often a Bahamian goat pepper, one of the spiciest peppers in the world. Cooks adjust the amount depending on how much heat the eater wants. The whole dish is a brilliant balance of flavours: salty sea-fresh conch, sweet citrus juice, cooling cucumber, and fiery pepper all at once.
In Nassau's Potter's Cay, under the bridge between Nassau and Paradise Island, you can find rows of conch salad stands. The vendors are famous for their speed — they can shell a live conch, chop all the ingredients, and hand you a perfectly mixed salad in just a few minutes. Watching an expert shell a conch is like watching a magic trick.
Conch salad is eaten all year round and is the kind of food people love to share. Families bring it to picnics, it appears at festivals and regattas, and it is always one of the first things Bahamians recommend to visitors. There is a friendly debate about which stand in Nassau makes the very best version.