We did a lot of exploring over the next week in the Bahamas and ate a lot of food (does anything beat a few days of exploring with lots of food thrown in? I think not). We decided to head down to see what the main town (Nassau) was like, as well as go on a food tour too. Let's eat and explore!
As soon as we arrived downtown the rain started pouring but it was still really humid
We wandered around and I fell in love with all the pastel buildings. 
I wore my new dress from Zara and soon the rain decided to stop. I've found some similarish dresses online here, here and here.
We stumbled across the Straw Market
It's full of souvenirs and things that you don't really need but it's great for traditional Bahamian gifts and it's a great place to hide from the rain too!
We watched as people carved away...
After purchasing a few ankle bracelets we wandered around the streets a little bit more before our food tour started.
The Bahamas is full of the most beautiful pastel buildings and I just love it.
This street was my favourite.
We met at 12pm sharp with our tour guide, Murray. We'd done a bit of research before our trip and read really great things about the Tru Bahamian Food Tours so decided to sign up for their Bites Of Nassau Tour. We would walk around Nassau for 3 hours and be shown all the best places to eat and also learn a little bit about Nassau. I am personally really not a fan of guided tours, I have just never liked them, I much prefer to look around places by myself and go at my own pace but because this was a food tour, I was really excited plus we had a lot of time in Nassau and it doesn't hurt to do a little tour!
Our first stop was Bahamian Cookin', a three generation Bahamian female restaurant serving traditional Bahamian food like mac and cheese (I always thought this was an American dish!?), conch fritters, fried fish and more... aka, food heaven (I need to get back to healthy eating after this!)
The food doesn't look too appetising but I promise you it was - we had traditional conch fritter which was actually my favourite thing from the whole day - crispy and delicious. I wish I had more than one! You may remember from my Island Life post I mentioned how I'd become obsessed with conch fritters whilst in the Bahamas.
We were then served a full plate of steamed chicken, Bahamian baked macaroni and cheese, peas n' rice, coleslaw and fried plantains - we finished this off with a cold glass of Bahamian lime juice. I know this looks like the worst thing ever on this photo but I promise, it tasted good. I couldn't eat it every day as it needs some green in there but hey, it's good for a cheat meal!
We continued to wander the streets with our tour guide - he did talk a lot!
After a little more strolling, we arrived at our next stop, Graycliff - you may already know this if you follow me on Instagram (@emshelx) as I mentioned it's where Jay-Z proposed to Beyonce apparently!
We got the chance to look around the stunning grounds
It's a must visit if you go to Nassau, it's so beautiful.
We soon headed to the cigar factory
and tried traditional Bahamian beer
but the best bit was heading into the chocolate factory - you all know I'm a sucker for amazing chocolate
The chocolatier is operated by an award winning chocolate maker and pastry chef called Erika Dupree Davis. All the designs feature Bahamian ingredients like guava, key lime, goat pepper and mango. I got to try a dark chocolate salted caramel and a white chocolate key lime pie - I only wish we got to have more because they were truly delicious and two just wasn't enough for this chocoholic! I can't explain how good they were.
I reluctantly left Graycliff and headed to our next stop (if I go back I will 100% stay there - it was perfection!)
We wandered past Government House...
and soaked up some beautiful views.
I wore my trusty new sandals all day and they were so comfy. My new H&M beach bag came in handy purely because I had so much stuff in there! After this, we had some local Bahamian tea and a coconut curry conch chowder soup!
After some more strolling (it was such a good way to see Nassau) we landed at Athena Cafe - the islands oldest Greek restaurant and another Nassau landmark. I was confused as to why we were at a Greek restaurant but it's because it's a bit of an institution in Nassau! We met the family who own it and they were so lovely. Again, it was great but it would have been nice to sample a bit more food here!
Our final foodie stop was the Tortuga Rum Cake Company, a famous rum cake bake shop serving 6 flavours of rum cake baked daily using 5 year aged Rum. We had the golden original rum cake and I actually bought some after to take home to my family. Rum cake shouldn't taste good but it does.
This was our final stop at the food tour and the sun finally came out so we decided to nip back to our hotel to quickly get changed.
I got changed into my new two-piece, a collaboration between Motel and Nylon magazine and I am obsessed with it. You can shop Motel online here - obsessed with all their new pieces. Thanks Motel for this lovely outfit!
Not to mention the pink houses in the background that match my outfit.
We wandered the dusky Nassau streets, taking everything in
and did some shopping of course.
Then it was time to have a long wander along the main beach and grab some cocktails along the way!
We decided to walk quite far and ended up at a lovely little hut called Seagulls, we had a coconut (he let us drink the fresh coconut water first) and then he made us one of my favourite cocktails inside, the Bahama mama! Rum based Summer cocktails are my absolute favourite (and it's all about rum in the Bahamas!), I always make daiquiris and mojitos so it was nice to try something different. I use these recipes from thebar.com when making my cocktails at home; daiquiri, mojito, pina colada (I'm obsessed with pina coladas!) - so if you need some inspiration for some Summer cocktails, there you have it! You don't need to go to the Bahamas for good cocktails!
I can't even begin to explain how good this tasted.
We strolled along the beautiful and peaceful beach
and then continued our walk (our next destination is pretty exciting...)
We walked straight along the beach for another 15 minutes
and then finally arrived at somewhere you simply have to visit if you go to Nassau. This is a Nassau must see; The fish fry!
The fish fry is basically an area in Nassau where all the locals gather and eat from the most amazing, local and authentic Bahamian restaurants so we decided to tie this in with our food tour and do this on the evening for dinner and boy I am so glad we did.
It was so nice to see locals eating authentic food - apaprently this is Bahamas comfort food
We had our meal at Oh Andros as we have heard from so many people that this is the best
We decided to share a main because the portion sizes are huge - this is half of a portion. We went for the fried fish which was cooked to perfection, then it came with lots of sides; mac and cheese, coleslaw, rice, plantains, you name it. Obviously we started with conch fritters... crispy little balls of heaven.
I'm not used to eating such carby/zero vegetable meals but it was actually really nice for a change
The place was full of locals all getting their share of delicious local food
Afterwards, we headed to Twin Brother's for some cocktails (more rum!)
I went for the pina colada
Jack went for the Sky Juice - it tastes delicious; sweet milk, coconut water and rum!
We basically fell fast asleep as soon as we got home, a full day of eating and walking really is exhausting. If you go to Nassau, make sure you go into the town to see all the beautiful buildings, nibble on some rum cake and you 100% have to go to the fish fry, purely for the atmosphere alone! The food tour was great but it was very different to the food tour I did in New York - that one moved at a much quicker pace as it was a private tour. This was a great way to learn about and eat lots of Bahamian food and I would recommend it if you have the time and don't mind hearing lots of history along the way! You'll probably remember from my top travel tips post I said I love really learning about the culture so it was really good to be shown around by a local too.
Have you ever heard of the fish fry? Do you love the cute houses too? Have you ever been on a food tour?
*I worked with TheBar on this post but as always it's 100% my honest opinion.
Lots of love, Em x
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