2012 Great Abaco Family Fitness Weekend, March 23-25

The 2012 Great Abaco
Family Fitness Weekend is set to take place starting Friday, March 23rd
and ending on Sunday, March 25th.  The beautiful Treasure Cay Resort and
Marina will play host to the event, with athletes confirmed from
Nassau, Freeport, Abaco, and Florida.  Many more are expected to
register this week as the price increases on March 12th.  

The
first event in the series is a 1-mile open water swim.  This event will
take place in the crystal clear blue waters of the Treasure Cay beach,
rated one of the Top 10 beaches in a reader poll by Caribbean Travel
& Life.  This takes place on Friday afternoon at 5pm, and is
followed by an awards presentation and welcome reception at the Coco
Beach Bar with refreshments provided by Sands Beer.  A pasta buffet will
follow for participants, their families, supporters, volunteers, and
staff...

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2012 Great Abaco Family Fitness Weekend, March 23-25

The 2012 Great Abaco Family Fitness Weekend is set to take place starting Friday, March 23rd and ending on Sunday, March 25th.  The beautiful Treasure Cay Resort and Marina will play host to the event, with athletes confirmed from Nassau, Freeport, Abaco, and Florida.  Many more are expected to
register this week as the price increases on March 12th.  

read more »

2012 Great Abaco Family Fitness Weekend, March 23-25

The 2012 Great Abaco
Family Fitness Weekend is set to take place starting Friday, March 23rd
and ending on Sunday, March 25th.  The beautiful Treasure Cay Resort and
Marina will play host to the event, with athletes confirmed from
Nassau, Freeport, Abaco, and Florida.  Many more are expected to
register this week as the price increases on March 12th.  

The
first event in the series is a 1-mile open water swim.  This event will
take place in the crystal clear blue waters of the Treasure Cay beach,
rated one of the Top 10 beaches in a reader poll by Caribbean Travel
& Life.  This takes place on Friday afternoon at 5pm, and is
followed by an awards presentation and welcome reception at the Coco
Beach Bar with refreshments provided by Sands Beer.  A pasta buffet will
follow for participants, their families, supporters, volunteers, and
staff...

read more »

A bird's diet can be tricky

For the greater part of the year, I have been guilty in that most of the weekly veterinary articles presented have been dealing with matters affecting your pet dog or cat. As a result, I have somewhat been slightly biased towards dogs and cats than to other pets such as birds, fish and exotics. Today, I will try and make it up to the bird lovers and show more love to my feathery friends.
Birds make wonderful, interactive and affectionate pets. They are extremely intelligent and can bond very well with their owners. So if you are considering getting a bird or already have one, here are some basic guidelines for feeding your pet bird and protecting it with optional nutrition and health tips.
A bird diet can be a tricky thing to try and formulate, especially because its eating behavior and food choice is no different from humans. A lot of factors such as species (parrots, finches, etc.), environment and gender play a role in what types of food each bird will require.
Captive birds' (which most pet owners have in cages) diets are a debatable subject. An incorrect diet can result in vitamin deficiency or obesity, among other things. Some may argue that a strict commercial diet is the best thing to feed your bird. A highly commercial diet will provide balanced and complete nutrition in each pellet. However, since the needs of bird are slightly different as far as calorie consumption and even vitamin consumption are concerned, a pelleted diet is also probably the furthest from the diet that would be encountered in the wild.
A natural diet may be a good option for your bird, but it comes with its downfalls as well. Natural diets most closely resemble what the bird may have eaten in the wild, but this can lead to a bird picking out the preferred foods and leaving the rest. This can lead to an imbalanced and incomplete diet. Most birds prefer seeds over other things, but too much seed is extremely unhealthy for a bird. Seeds are deficient in vitamins like B12, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, vitamin A, vitamin C, many essential amino acids, calcium, sodium, zinc, iodine and selenium. Seeds are important to maintain a physiological balance, but are required in limited quantities.
Feeding birds a diet mainly consisting of seed is like giving your bird junk food all the time. Obesity can result, as well as a vitamin deficiency from the excess carbohydrates and fat.
For a general rule of thumb, yellow and orange vegetables like squash or sweet potato are excellent for providing vitamin A. Dark green vegetables are excellent for providing calcium, vitamin B, vitamin A and essential trace minerals. Veterinarians recommend a diet consisting of 50 percent pelleted food, 20 percent grains (seeds, bread, cooked rice or pasta), 20 percent vegetables such as the one mentioned above and 10 percent fruits, meat and cheese.
Birds develop a sense of what is correct to eat when they are young. They are foragers and are taught the correct diet by their parents or handlers in the case of hand-fed birds. Once a bird is shown a specific diet, it may be difficult to change those eating habits and can require a great deal of patience. By slowly adding new foods into the diet, you would be able to wean your bird off the older, preferred food. Any bird that is going to have its diet changed should have a health evaluation done by a veterinarian. Changing a diet would provide just enough stress to allow an infection to manifest itself clinically.
Good health is the basis for any companion we care for, and good health starts with a proper diet full of the essentials. If you consult your veterinarian and follow some of these tips, you are sure to have a healthy, wonderful companion who will be with you for years to come.

o Dr. Basil Sands can be contacted at Central Animal Hospital at 325-1288.

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A passion for food and flavors

Chef Jacques Carlino is known for the lunch food he serves up at Blue Caviar Le Bistro on Blake Road, but for the past four months he's been making waves on the dinner scene at his newest restaurant, Blue Caviar Le Restaurant. It's at Le Restaurant where he's serving classic French cuisine with the beautiful sauces he loves but which he lightens up in a twist to modernity. While the chef loves lovely sauces, he doesn't believe in sauces that are too rich or too heavy. He just puts in what is necessary.
"I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel," said Chef Carlino of the offerings at his newest location just outside the gates of Lyford Cay and Old Fort Bay. "It's classic cuisine. I believe in food that's good for the belly."
Chef Carlino, the son of Italian parents was born and raised in France, and his style of cooking is classic French -- simple and refined. His philosophy is that food should taste as good as it looks and satisfy the palette.
The menu he offers at Le Restaurant reflects that philosophy. His starters include a French onion soup with cheese and croutons; tartar of ahi yellow fin tuna with avocado and citrus vinaigrette; handmade wild mushroom and chicken tortellini with truffle foam, escargots bourguignon, cherry tomato, fresh goat cheese, arugula and lemon olive oil, steamed asparagus with prosciutto crudo and poached egg.
His entrée dishes offer something for every taste from a Scottish salmon with asparagus, new potato and hollandaise sauce; filet of cod with cauliflower puree, shitake mushroom and demi-glace; lamb shank with creamed potato and a white wine and tomato sauce; breast of duck with a tarte fine of pears, beetroot puree and Madeira sauce; and chicken cordon bleu served with a pomme pont neuf (Parisian fried potatoes).
From the grill, he offers tenderloin of beef with pomme pont neuf and peppercorn sauce; thick-cut pork chop with creamed potato and mushroom sauce; ribeye steak with chips and Bernaise sauce; and a veal chop with creamed potato and mushroom sauce.
And pasta lovers aren't left out with a creamed pesto fettucini with chicken breast and Parmesan; and seafood penne pasta with shrimp and bay scallops.
The restaurant's main dining room seats 40 people with seating for another six available at the bar and a bar lounge that can also seat another six people.
After opening Blue Caviar Le Bistro at Blake Road three years ago, Chef Carlino said he wanted a bigger restaurant where he could carry out dinner service. It took him a while to identify the location that he could visualize doing something special with.
"I didn't want to just make a restaurant with tables and chairs. I wanted to have a restaurant where people felt special sitting down -- and I believe that's what we've achieved," said Chef Carlino who is in charge of the kitchen. His nephew Nicolas Rossi commands the front of the house.
"I believe that if people want to eat lovely food they will drive for it. And I wanted it to be a destination," he said of his far west location. "We are a destination restaurant in a lovely location that's very quiet in the evenings and perfectly safe with security."
For people wanting to try a little more of Chef Carlino's food at one meal, he also offers up tasting menus. One can indulge in an eight-course tasting offered at $95 per person which includes an amuse bouche; the tortellini; tartar of ahi yellow fin tuna; cod; beef tenderloin; pre-dessert and a chocolate trio. For those wanting chef recommended wine pairings with their meal the cost is $135 per person. To enjoy the tasting menu everyone at the table has to order tastings.
Chef Carlino also serves a bistro-style lunch at Le Restaurant similar to what is served at his Blake Road location, but dinner is something special. The tables are covered in white linen, the lights are dimmed and candles are lit in the restaurant that has a soaring 27-foot ceiling with woodwork that is all hand carved in a building that was dismantled in Vietnam and brought over to The Bahamas.
"It's quite impressive to see," he said of Le Restaurant. "The building is fabulous."
As he looks to expand Le Restaurant after only four months, Chef Carlino has commenced work on what will be a trendy bar to add to the location.
"I want it to be fun -- a trendy bar where people are going to come for drinks ... have some tapas at the bar. Not that the inside isn't fun, but I want to draw two types of clientele -- there's one type of clientele that may come once a month to the restaurant and then at the bar people may come twice a week after work to have a beer and have some prosciutto or a plate of garlic shrimp."
Chef Carlino is hoping the bar will be completed by the end of January.
Le Restaurant is being offered by a chef that spent 20 years running and partnering in some of London's top restaurant including two Michelin-starred restaurant The Square in Mayfair and at Michelin starred restaurant The Ledbury in Nottinghill.

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A taste of the Wine Art Festival

Depending on who you're speaking to, the Bahamas National Trust Wine & Art Festival, or Jollification heralds the start of the holiday season.  No matter which event you ascribe to, the fact of the matter is that there is always great eating to be had.
And this year's BNT Wine & Art Festival did not disappoint with the likes of the One&Only Ocean Club executive chef Emmanuel Gibson, Chef Jamal Small and catering and event management diva Alexandra Maillis-Lynch, who owns Alexandra, bringing the heat and flavor to delicious offerings.
Chef Gibson wowed festival patrons with a plantain crusted snapper dish.  Chef Small enthralled the crowds with his cassava gnocchi with roasted root vegetables in a fennel cream sauce, and Maillis-Lynch's roast pig did not fail to stun the masses.
The plantain crusted snapper dish is probably one of the simplest in Chef Gibson's recipe arsenal, but it's a tasty one that received high praises and is easy enough that the home cook can easily reproduce it.
"I decided to showcase this recipe at the festival because it's a favorite of mine, and I thought people would love it," said Chef Gibson who has showcased many fabulous meals at the festival in the past.  "And just as I expected, they loved it because the plantain chips provides another layer of flavor to the fish because it's crunchy.
His advice to the home cook when making his plantain-crusted snapper is to always purchase fresh, not frozen fish, and store packaged plantain chips.  If you can't find the chips, he suggests frying up a few green plantains.  And the greener the plantain, the better it is for the dish.
As the dish takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes, Chef Gibson says it can be prepared any night of the week.   All you need to enjoy it with is good company.
Chef Jamal Small's cassava gnocchi with roasted root vegetables in a fennel cream sauce was another huge hit on the day.  It was a dish that he had only made twice before the festival, but by the positive responses he received, you'd think he had been making it for a lifetime.
At his last job, Chef Small who had been in charge of all things gnocchi and pasta, found himself experimenting in the kitchen and a "light bulb" went off in his head.  He decided to incorporate plantain into his gnocchi.  The resulting flavor explosion led him to adding cassava that is in the potato family as well to the dough.  The result was a nutty flavor that went over well.  He put the two together and his dish evolved from there.
While it sounds fancy enough, Chef Small says his dish is relatively easy for the home cook to recreate.  The toughest part is remembering to remove the rib from the center of the cassava, and boiling it in milk for 45 minutes to help breakdown the fibrous vegetable, instead of water.  The addition of potatoes helps to fill out the dough.  And running the mixture through a potato ricer makes it more velvety.  If you don't have a ricer, don't despair, Chef Small says you can use whatever utensil you ordinarily use to make mashed potatoes -- whether a potato masher, fork or whisk.  After the dough is made you should chill it to the point where it doesn't stick to your fingers.  If you are confident enough, you can gently knead for four minutes until it is no longer sticky.  He says the cassava won't be completely smooth in the pasta, but the cassava lumps in the dough will give you a delicious burst of cassava flavor.
When you make the dish he says it's one where you should expect to taste all the flavors, as everything comes out separately -- the fennel, the root vegetables, and the cassava will pop.
"The one thing I learned and appreciated learning from Chef [Michael] Pataran (the former executive chef who he worked under) was to put love into whatever you do.  He loves food to the second power, and I took that on, and learned that you have to cook with love," says Chef Small.

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Abaco Ceramics

• St. Simon's, Treasure Cay Road
• Treasure Cay
• Abaco, Bahamas

Amici, A Trattoria

• Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort, West Bay Street
• Nassau
• Nassau / Paradise Island, Bahamas

Andros To Grow Cocoa Beans

The Graycliff Chocolate Factory has partnered with a farm on Andros to produce locally grown cocoa beans, providing the basis of a truly Bahamian product.

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Baark! Christmas Bake Sale - December 10th

Don't miss

BAARK Christmas Bake Sale December 10th, 2011 at 11am-3pm, Outside Winderemere Spa, Harbour Bay.

Come out and get your delicious Christmas Treats - both savory and sweet!

Cookies, Cakes, Pies, Quiches, Muffins, Pasta, Mince Pies, Salads, Brownies, Macaroons, Banana
Bread, Mac n cheese.

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