The myth about coconuts

[Wathepleela]

These are mature coconuts that've been shorn of their outer husk (the stuff that is used for orchid potting!) and slightly seared* for a clean-cut appearance. As they are ripe fruits, the juice is not only at its sweetest but also tastier and the flesh that line the inside of the shell also thicker and crunchier - than that of young coconuts served straight off the tree in their green suit, (usually adorned with cocktail umbrellas and colorful straws.)

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(*seared = not quite accurate, pardon my frayed english. What's the word to say getting seared under a pile of hot ash?)

Here's a coconut machete. The round head got enough heft to crack the coconut shell by a couple of whacks. This one is all rusty, hasn't been used since I left for a US home visit last Xmas.

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To end with an orchid related item, here's my still blooming "orchid du jour" (pardon my french but the reality is I have given up all delusion that I can "grow" orchids. It's not them, it's me....)

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A canoply of blooms that leaves me indifferent. I'm still under the enchantment of my other phal, the ox spot harlequin. That one got soul, even with just seven blooms it managed to call me to hurry home every day. We had a whole blissful season together before it quit.

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[Dollythehun]

Sear is probably correct.

[charlesf6]

You have a lovely bunch of coconuts!


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[PaphMadMan]

Singe would be a more precise word when using heat to remove surface material without cooking or browning. Scorch would be longer or hotter.

I've never had the chance to taste truly fresh coconut. I'm jealous.

[Leafmite]

I went to Hawaii as a child and I will never forget what a surprise it was that coconut milk was so good! We went somewhere where you paid for a coconut, they knocked one (or more) off the tree, put a hole it the coconut, stuck in a straw and then handed it to you. That was when you could still tour the Dole Pineapple cannery and the Island had quite a few sugar plantations...quite a long time ago.

[Dollythehun]

Wathepleela, seared, singed or scorched this is a delicious post! However, I'm curious as to what the "myth" is...just askin'.

[estación seca]

The coconuts are mything their husks.

[Dollythehun]

Ugh.

[Wathepleela]

Singed it is, thank you PaphMadMan, that what I was looking for (while seared is better used in "seared bass" and other items on a menu/recipe.) However the Thai word for it in this instance is also used for cremation (- as that of the late king which is taking place at the end of this month, one year after his passing away! Now everybody in the street is getting back to the rituals of dressing up in black; except for yours truly, who, due to wardrobe constraint, have only a black umbrella to show as a token of royal mourning - but I digress...)

The "myth" in this context, actually for lack of a better word, is more of a marketing strategy than anything else. First, a ripe coconut in its tatty rust-colored husk is not as inviting as a smooth green young thing freshly hacked off the tree. To have the best tasting juice you would go for the former, but the vendor most of the time carries only the latter. Second and more importantly, I guess it comes down to a matter of economy ie longer shell life, same reason you get green bananas at Costco.

I used to cringe when I had to buy "fresh" coconuts from stores in California. Not only they are hacked down since green, but also stored in refrigerated containers for long-distance freight transport. As a result what you get is a juice that not only has not been allowed to ripen, but quite often gotten soured or worst fermented (read spoiled) by the time it reaches your refrigerator. Then it would taste downright vinegary-nasty! One would think that California being next door to Mexico, or "just" a 6 hour flight away from Hawaii, one could expect something better, or at least drinkable.

Here in Thailand, you usually see a streetside refreshment stand/cart stocking up with a branchful of green coconuts lashed to the side. On an entertaining note, with a young, read more malleable, coconut a skillful vendor, with time to spare, can "carve" the fruit into something resembling a giant ice cream cone with the upper part of the white flesh exposed (the tourists love this.) Whereas with a ripe one, one simply gets down to the business of whacking away (with the help of one's trusty-rusty machete!)

[Dollythehun]

"The "myth" in this context, actually for lack of a better word, is more of a marketing strategy than anything else. First, a ripe coconut in its tatty rust-colored husk is not as inviting as a smooth green young thing freshly hacked off the tree. To have the best tasting juice you would go for the former, but the vendor most of the time carries only the latter."


So the myth is younger is better? I think this might apply to dating older people as well.😆