David’s Special

Among the many low-country flavours the Bahamas has inherited, one of the most popular is grits. An early-morning favourite in the islands, the ground-corn is paired with local dishes such as chicken souse, boiled fish, tuna salad, stew conch and stew fish. Though, if inhabiting the private island-resort and residences of Kamalame Cay, you will discover it in the ‘David’s Special’: a dish that marries the four S’s – sweet, salty, spicy and sour. Having craved the dish on more than one occasion, but landlocked to Nassau, I asked David – yes, the same who the dish borrows its namesake from – if he would be willing to share the recipe. Luckily for me, southern hospitality wasn’t lost on him:

| INGREDIENTS | Serves 2
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp sweet chili sauce (use honey if preferred)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 juiced Lime
1 rough-chopped onion
3 chopped scallions
Handful of rough-chopped basil (Thai basil is preferable)
1 rough-chopped tomato
1 minced garlic clove
1 inch (thinly chopped or sliced?) ginger
4-6 strips of bacon
Yellow Grits
Pinch of Coriander
2 poached or fried eggs

| DIRECTIONS |
Cook the bacon to a crisp and set aside. In a medium sized frying pan add oil, onions, ginger and cook until softened. Then add the tomato, garlic, and scallions. Sauté until reduced to the consistency of a tomato sauce. Add fish sauce, lime juice, sweet chili sauce and basil. Finally, add crumbled bacon and stir well. In two small bowls serve atop yellow grits, under a fried or poached egg and sprinkle with coriander.