Conch If You Love Provo

I've just returned from a week-long trip to Provo, and I think I might be in love.

What's not to enjoy about an island that's small enough to drive around in a couple of hours, big enough that it never feels crowded, and offers some of the Caribbean's ritziest hotels? I was completely enchanted by the 38-square mile island's small-town feel, the white-sand wonder of Grace Bay, and the friendliness of the people, who seemed genuinely pleased to see me. But ask me what I loved the most, and I gotta tell ya: it's the conch.

Who knew there were so many way to enjoy the chewy mollusc? On a lunchtime visit to beachfront Da Conch Shack I made a meal of hearty conch chowder; a bowl of lime-drenched ceviche-style conch salad; and a combo platter of battered and fried "cracked" conch and piping hot conch fritters. I admit it, I'm a glutton for the gastropod, baby.

The next day, I went in search of the conch wontons that have bested the competition in the island's annual conch festival four years in a row and found my bliss at Sibonne's Bay Bistro, where a plate of the light, crisply fried conch-filled envelopes went down real easy.

Following my obsession to its source, on Day Three I headed east to The Conch Farm, the only only one in the world. At the modest operation I marveled as I watched trays of the fingernail-sized babies (or veligers) being hand fed, and was almost as delighted as the four-year-olds in our group when introduced to longtime residents Sally and Jerry, the farm's "stunt conchs," who emerge from their algae-covered shells on command.

"The average egg mass contains more than half a million conch, but in the wild only one conch will survive," our tour guide told us. "But here at the conch farm we raise more than 1.5 million conch each year, which we export all over the world and sell to local restaurants and hotels for visitors like you to enjoy. So before you leave, make sure you try some."

He didn't have to tell me twice.

Conch If You Love Provo