Conch Stew and Rundown

Two dishes carry Caymanian cooking. Conch stew is conch cleaned, pounded and cooked slowly with onion, pepper, thyme and tomato until it gives, served with rice and beans; done badly it is rubber, and the pounding and the time are what separate the two outcomes. Rundown, or run down, is the older and stranger one: coconut milk simmered until it splits and the oil comes out, with salted or fresh fish cooked in it along with cassava, breadfruit and dumplings, producing something rich, oily and quite unlike anything a visitor expects. Both are Sunday and district food rather than restaurant food.

What you actually see

• Conch stew - slow-cooked with the pounding that makes it tender.
• Rundown - coconut milk cooked until it splits, with fish and provisions.
• Cassava and breadfruit - the provisions that go into both.
• District kitchens - where both are actually made properly.

When to go

Year-round, though conch has a closed season from May to October during which local conch should not be served. Sunday is the traditional day. Local restaurants in the districts rather than the Seven Mile Beach strip.

Honest expectations

Conch has a closed season from the start of May to the end of October and locally caught conch should not appear on menus then. Both dishes are hard to find in tourist areas and require asking around. Rundown's split coconut oil texture puts some visitors off entirely. Neither is quick food.

Nearby

Local restaurants in the districts; the fish fry at East End and West Bay.