Take what you know about grocery story deli offerings and toss them because what became the norm - rotisserie chicken, peas and rice, steamed chicken, BBQ ribs and the like - simply does not cut it at the country's newest store deli.
At the Solomon's Fresh Market in the Old Fort Bay Town Centre in western New Providence, it's a place where you can allow your taste buds and adventure for food to go wild - think compressed watermelon and tomato salad with feta cheese and sunflower sprouts; seared rib eye steaks; six-bean salad; feta, cured ham and spiral pasta salad sans mayonnaise; clam and wheat quinoa pasta salads; Italian tartine (open-faced sandwich); couscous with sundried tomatoes; duck confit... you get the picture. There are even food items for people that follow a macrobiotic (raw) diet, and who only eat foods that are cooked to temperatures at or below 98.7 degrees F. And of course for those people looking for a less adventurous meal, you can get that too.
"We don't really treat it as if we're cooking for a deli, and I think that's where the difference is," said Fresh Market food services manager, Chef Simeon Hall Jr. "You can take any one of the items we have in our showcase and plate it for service in a restaurant."
And the variety is almost never-ending with a menu that changes daily. There's always something new. On the day I visited, the hot food showcased oven-roasted broccoflower, sauted red bliss potatoes with onion and bacon, New Orleans dirty rice, thyme roasted French beans, brown sugar yams, seared rib-eye steaks, London broil tri-tip, steamed basmati rice, lemon and pepper chicken, garlic chicken and BBQ chicken. The soup display offered up split peas and ham soup, turkey chili with beans, tomato bisque and broccoli cheddar soups. There's even a Mediterranean olive bar offering a dizzying array of olives - blue cheese stuffed, marinated, garlic stuffed, kalamata and piccholine olives. And whoever thought of eating a pickled garlic, but that too is to be had, along with elephant garlic confit, ingredients that can do wonders to most meals.
The chef said variety is always key because they do not want to get stale.
"We have to continuously challenge ourselves with updating the menu so that customer expectation is always exceeded. We tell people they're probably going to get a favorite dish here maybe once a week."
With people moving away from uninspired food, the chef said people are interested in trying something new. But there is one salad that they do offer quite often, and that's a caprese salad (tomato and mozzarella) which sells really well.
"We walk the store every day and make a selection based on what it is we want to do. We are governed only by our creativity," said Chef Hall. "We are inspired by working around so many ingredients and we only use what's in store. Our goal now is to inspire people to create more."
Ensuring that they feed everybody, Chef Hall said that macrobiotic cooking - which is keeping everything under 98.7 degrees for the raw food diet set is important. On the day of my visit, a mushroom salad with tomatoes, Asian salad with broccolini, oyster mushrooms, sprouts, sesame seed and ginger dressing and an asparagus salad were to be had.
There are always grains, whether it is basmati rice, quinoa, couscous or pasta. And the antipasti selection is huge with about 24 different offerings. And there's no worry if antipasti is left over because the olive oil marinated antipasti always taste better the next day. But the Fresh Market rarely has any left over.
With spring officially here, Chef Hall and his staff are beginning to showcase foods that display the best of spring produce. Expect to see lots of items with tomato, corn, pumpkin, sprouts, vegetables and fruits like mango and avocado. He said because he works in the market, the possibilities are endless. And he enjoys working with the local and organic products from which he gets to choose.
"A large percentage, especially of our produce is organic in nature. If not organic, it's local. And as a chef, I prefer to work with ingredients that are local over something that's organic from California because I can go to the farm and check it out. I can't check out the California farm, whereas I can go to the Lucayan farm and check it out and see what it is, so it's just as good to me or even better," he said.
To welcome in spring, one of the first lighter deli offerings was on the antipasti side, a compressed Andros watermelon, Lucayan spring tomatoes, feta cheese, sunflower sprouts and basil salad with a drizzle of strawberry balsamic glaze topped with day-old French baguette that had been made into croutons. It's a dish that showcased local ingredients with global techniques.
"Back in the day, we were taught we had to have 87 different flavors on one plate, but my whole thought process behind this dish, besides spring, was keeping everything basically red, but still contrasting it with colors. Compressing the watermelon removed some of the water from it for a textural change, and infused the melon with the lemon and basil flavors and scent. The salad can be made without compressing the watermelon.
The Fresh Market opened its doors to the public in November 20 and Chef Hall said while his staff offers store-driven foods in the deli, he said they also said educating their customers is high on their agenda as well. It's not uncommon Chef Hall said to find he or a member of his staff making suggestions to customers.
The Fresh Market deli is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on some Saturdays a pop-up omelette station may just be set up. Hot food is served from at 11 a.m. through 4 p.m.

Watermelon and tomato salad
Serves: 2
Recipe: Chef Simeon Hall Jr.

8 ounce seedless Andros watermelon, large dice
6 pieces Lucayan Farms cherry tomatoes
1 ounce Feta cheese
Juice of half an Andros lemon
½ ounce flavored balsamic glaze, strawberry suggested
¼ ounce sunflower sprouts
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

In a small bowl, toss watermelon and tomato with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.
Add the fresh lime juice and stir to make a stable emulsion. Plate the ingredients. Top with sprouts. Crumble the feta cheese generously on top. Finish salad with a splash of extra virgin olive oil, cracked pepper and balsamic glaze.

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