A fish fry is a Bahamian version of a seafood festival, similar to a Bahamian backyard experience.

Heritage Village is the scene of the “fish fry”, a venue featuring plenty of down-home island cooking and local entertainment. It is where the locals go to eat fresh seafood that has just been captured from the waters off shore.

Heritage Village is one of the best places to knock back a Kalik beer, chat with the locals, or sample traditional Bahamian cuisine and cultural goodies in an informal atmosphere. The ambience is further enhanced by the scent of sea breeze and the cooing of the seagulls nearby.

What began back in the 1960’s as a few ramshackle huts hastily constructed to serve quick meals to folks on their way to and from the old Bahamas Customs facility, is today a thriving Bahamian business community. Stalls now number close to forty and they are considerably better built.

The food continues to be as close to home-made as you can find.

Centrally located, 5 minutes west of the downtown shopping district and just north of the Hanes Oval Cricket Pitch and Adastra Gardens, Zoo and Conservation Center, the pastel colored clapboard style buildings are situated on an inlet overlooking the Nassau Harbour and Paradise Island, home of the Atlantis Resort. Fish and conch are the featured options and can be prepared in many different ways.

For example, there is grilled conch, fried or cracked conch, conch chowder, conch fritters and the all time favorite, conch salad. This is a spicy mixture of chopped conch mixed with diced onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, hot peppers in a lime and orange marinade. Just watching the expert chopping of the ingredients is a show as good as any in town. The choicest of the islands fish, grouper or snapper, are served fried, steamed or grilled.

Meals are typically served with peas and rice, French fries, potato salad, Cole slaw, Bahamian macaroni and cheese and fried plantains. For desert there is guava duff, a local favorite and a Bahamian delight. Guava Duff is a steamed pudding made from dough with guava slices jelly rolled, wrapped in cloth and steamed for several hours to give a light, fluffy texture. The finishing touch is a sauce made from the strained guava pulp and flavored to taste with rum, vanilla or confectionary sugar. The guava fruit is available year round, but is most plentiful during the summer months.

To wash it all down, try our locally brewed beer, Kalik named after the sound of Junkanoo cowbells or Sky Juice, a potent gin and coconut water concoction with condensed milk added as flavoring.

The site has a Police Station, a story telling porch and a rock-oven commonly used on the Family Islands for baking. There is a village green where festivals, cultural events and concerts are held.

A Junkanoo “rush-out” is held during the month of June, the purpose of which is to give visitors who are unable to attend during the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations a taste of what the parade is like.

Behind the village is a cay, an artificial island, which was built from sand dredged from the Nassau Harbor. This cay is called Arawak Cay however, the locals have taken to calling the Fish Fry at Heritage Village, Arawak Cay.