De-boned bone fish

Grand Bahama is small enough that it’s easy to explore the whole island, especially when your rental car is a fuel-sipping hybrid. 

Where Monday was a day for exploring the east coast, today’s drive took us to the west end. It was sad to see the many abandoned buildings, as we'd hoped to contribute to the local economy... but luck was with us, as we met up with some fishermen just returning to shore with their catch.

We laughed with the throng of local women who also showed up for fresh fish. And really, the catch couldn’t have been any fresher – so fresh that one jumped out and onto the ground! These fish were still kicking in the proverbial bucket of iced water, so the only way they could have been fresher would have been if we'd been along on the boat with the men. 

We knew that snapper (top of the heap, centre) was readily available on most restaurant menus, so instead chose ourselves a bonefish. In the photo, the bonefish is the tubular fish that looks almost transparent. The one that looks like a small cousin to the swordfish is the needle nose, a fish that often accompanied us when we swam in the sea. 

Although the little kitchen in our condo is reasonably equipped, we didn’t feel confident about cleaning fish there, not only for the lack of good knives, but for the clean-up it would have meant (after all, this is a holiday). 

Luckily, the nice man not only gutted the fish, but cut it into beautiful fillets for us.

We asked the local women who were 'shopping' with us how to cook it, and we followed their instructions as carefully we could, baking it with onion and green and red pepper and lots of freshly squeezed lime juice. 

As accompaniment, I'd baked a couple of yams in the oven. Even though I’d popped their skins, they still oozed onto the bottom of the oven. So, despite best efforts, here I was going to have to clean the oven after all. Nothing better to remind me of home sweet home. 

We had a bit of leftover dipping sauce from some conch fritters we'd had earlier, so the D.M. drizzled that around the edges of the plate, to give it that ‘French’ look.

Another yummy supper in our island paradise.