Heritage Kitchen on Boggy Sand Road in Grand Cayman, is, as its name might imply, an oasis of the past. This little beachside restaurant behind the West Bay four-way stop, shaded by a weathered guinep tree and decorated by deep pink bougainvillea, looks like a traditional Cayman Caboose (the semi-detached outdoor kitchen and eating area of 18th century Cayman homes).

Set amongst the onslaught of the modern, the Heritage Kitchen experience harkens back to another time, with its fretwork eaves, its painted tin sides and its rustic nature, its pan-fried fish and traditional Caymanian “fritters” (a slightly sweet fried dumplin, not unlike a New Orleans-style beignet without the powdered sugar).

You sit at worn wood tables over a worn floor beneath an open-raftered worn tin roof, behind a rough wood sign painted yellow that says “Welcome”, and you feel welcome. You eat fish that is succulent and flavourful, you eat it with hot peppered onions and you eat with glee. You wash this down with a natural juice, a coconut water or perhaps with a West Indian-style ginger beer; there’s no liquor license but you’re free to bring your own beer or wine or liquor if you plan to sit here, within the sound of the waves and make an evening of it.

Dora Ebanks, her hair a gorgeous deep red, greets us from the front window of the restaurant, a window that opens out to a view of the sea, above a wall of zinc sheeting that’s painted to depict a colourful primitive ocean, its fish swimming toward the window.  It feels like she’s inviting us into her home. She along with her husband Dalkieth own Heritage Kitchen; both are warm, friendly, generous people-Caymanian people- although Dalkieth spent many years in Belize. Its 5:30 in the evening and the fish is almost done cooking.

“‘Nother 10, 15 minutes,” Dora says. Her son is helping in the kitchen, her sister lights the warmers under the chaffing dishes. It’s a family affair.

Tonight’s dinner, written on a blackboard propped by the open window dora ebanks (left) with nadine and jen from heritage kitchen is whole snapper, mahi mahi, fish tea or barbeque chicken. Some nights there’s jerk pork or jerk chicken; Dalkieth says he likes to barbeque.

The beach, a mere 16 feet away and on the other side of a sea-wall, is lovely, a pink white and powdery sand; the sun is setting, shafts of it break through the clouds to our right over Northwest Point, Seven Mile Beach curves away to the south and toward real high-rise development density. Boggy Sand Road it’s interesting to note, part of the original village of West Bay, now contains some of the most expensive real estate in the Caribbean, but here the light is soft and slanting, it mellows everything.

You sit on the sea wall to wait for the fish to finish cooking and look out; others are doing the same, people are in the sand, a dog runs by chasing a thrown ball, there’s no noise but the noise of the sea. And then, the fish is finished cooking -it’s time to eat.

Heritage Kitchen in West Bay, Grand Cayman, is open from 5 p.m. till 10:30
p.m. on Wednesdays and 5 p.m. till midnight Fridays and Saturdays.

Source: SkyWritings Magazine
Photo credit: Jeremy Francis