EYW Blog

It’s a famously overexploited, not quite endangered, species. But when conch is on every menu in town, there’s got to be a ton of ’em, right? A look at that beloved Caribbean mollusk, the queen conch—and how to help protect it.


Shell vendor on Potter's Cay, Nassau

“Are you feeling conchy tonight?” the waitress inquired with a smile when we wondered aloud about the Bimini conch linguine—a $22 Bahamian take on the traditional Italian clam dish, apparently. We were at a sports bar outside Nassau with friends and our collective flock of young kids, and we’d already had conch fritters and a conch patty earlier that day. The general consensus: Aren’t we always feeling conchy down...

Team EYW was recently in Port Antonio, where the Blue Mountains meet the sea in northeast Jamaica, to cover the north coast’s local foods for this site. The birthplace of jerk, this gorgeously green, serene region is one that rewards an exploratory spirit—even if you have a two-year-old in tow.

To be perfectly honest, we arrived to Port Antonio, on Jamaica’s lush northeast coast, a little beaten down. Scott and I had just survived a nearly five-hour drive (with stops, including two by the speed-gun-happy local cops) along the coast from Montego Bay, the last two hours slow and winding, with our temperamental nearly two-year-old, and we were already dreading the drive back in a few...

When we visited Antigua this winter, it was with the intention of relaxing on the beach, not driving all over the island hunting for local food. Well, relax on the beach we did, but with a rental car and an unwillingness to eat overpriced Italian food every night, we couldn’t help but give a local-food search our best shot. We had only a handful of days on the island—and quickly learned we had to dig a little to find the local stuff—but it was plenty of time to produce a good EYW snapshot of eight genuinely delicious Antiguan dishes and drinks. Check it out here.

As for the island itself—it’s too pretty not to share a few beauty shots, from harbor overlooks and roadside fruit...

On the Caribbean island of Antigua, you hear the word “water” used to describe many a local dish—conch water, cockle (clam) water, goat water. But fear not: Watery broths these are not. Preparations vary, but chances are you’ll receive a very flavorful soup or even stew highlighting the featured ingredient. Goat water, a rich, hearty stew with notes of clove and cinnamon, was one of our favorites, especially this one, found in an unexpected place: a beach bar crawling with souvenir hawkers and day-tripping cruise shippers up from St. John’s, the Antiguan capital.

It was the type of place we might usually shun, but instead we went there twice—first at the behest of the Jamaican...

On Antigua, knowledge is power when seeking island cuisine, as the tourism industry and an apparent weekends-only policy conspire to keep some local dishes just out of reach.

On the Caribbean island of Antigua last weekend, our local-food queries were most frequently greeted with:

“Local food? Saturday only.”

 “You have to go to someone’s home. Or to the little spots in St. John’s.”

“Hmmm….” [cue squinty  thinking face]

It’s true we hadn’t done our own usual research. This trip, a long weekend ensconced in a quiet beachfront apartment on Antigua’s northwest shore, was a “babymoon” of sorts—that final relaxing trip before the new addition arrives, in just over two months...

A few summers ago, I conducted my graduate-school research at a health clinic in a batey, or rural community, about an hour north of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Punta Cana’s high-end resorts and all-you-can-eat buffets are a stark contrast to the impoverished former sugarcane plantations that make up the bateys in the island’s interior. Electricity is rare and subject to apagaones (blackouts) that can last an entire day, which has serious consequences for rural health clinics trying to operate blood labs and store vaccines—and severely limits the menu dished up for clinic staff.

During my 10-week stay, I slept on the floor of an empty clinic room with a handful of...