The "Where Conch is King" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Traveling through Blue Hills in Providenciales looking for a place to eat.  Not just any place mind you, but a place that we remembered from nine years ago when we ate there.  Back then it was located along the Caribbean Sea and had rows and rows of conch shells that were sitting next to it on a vacant lot.  In 2003 we stopped at da Conch Shack for lunch on a hot humid day.  The kind of day that made you want to hop in the water to cool off before you sat down to lunch.  And, that's exactly what my wife Carol and our friend Just Sue did that day.  Right in front of the colorful roadside restaurant they wandered into the cool, turquoise water to cool off before lunch.  A few yards from the beach they came upon a real surprise.  Conch shells!  Hundreds and hundreds of conch shells that had been discarded after removing the conch from them to make chowder, fritters, and fried conch.  They each brought two shells from the water which we placed in the trunk of our rental car.  Still have one of our shells on display under our TV in the family room.  Brings back memories most every time I watch TV.  Well, the current da Conch Shack is no longer in the same location, having been moved a block or two from the original one a few years ago.  No longer rows and rows of empty shells lining the property next to it, but there is a display along the water that holds shells for purchase.  The new colorful bar and restaurant is a popular hangout for tourists and locals.  It still is rimmed by the turquoise sea while the picnic tables hide under the swaying palms just as they used to years ago.  The conch is as fresh as you can get; you can watch the staff clean your conch minutes before it is delivered to your table if you care to do so.  They serve between 300 to 600 conch a day, depending on the season.  You can order your conch curried, cracked, in stew or chowder, fried or in fritters.  They do have a few other menu selections, but at this place, conch is king.  I personally don't like conch.  Too chewy and most times you have to just swallow it whole.  I must admit I was disappointed after waiting and talking about our return to da Conch Shack for more than a year.  But sometimes your memory makes things out to be better than they really were years ago.  On this day, that was the case.  But hey, we're on vacation and everything is just fine no matter how we pictured it to be.  Wouldn't have missed our trip to da Conch Shack for anything.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Wall in front of da Conch Shack covered with conch shells

Picnic tables by the sea, under the palms

Shells for sale along the shoreline