Coco-nutty

Coconut vendor at Camichin de Juaja, Mexico

I enjoy a wide variety of natural foods but there are a few that I have disliked since childhood. I think many of my "dislikes" were texture related rather than taste related. One dislike was coconut which is often served in a desiccated and stale form in cakes, cookies and candy bars. Last year I read about the health benefits of coconut oil and bought some in the health food section of our grocery store. It was delicious and I have used it as a spread or in pie crust and homemade granola. We have also become accustomed to coconut milk in our curries and soups.

This January my dad directed my brother and I to a man who sells coconuts from the back of his pickup truck in the nearby village. He husked the nut, opened the top and poured the water into a bag with a straw. He then scraped out the coconut meat and put it in another bag with freshly squeezed lime juice, dried chili and coarse salt. It was nothing like the dry, stale coconut in plastic bags in the baking aisle. It took me two days to eat all the coconut meat but it was so tasty, especially after it had marinated in the salt, chili and lime overnight!

I found some young coconuts in our local grocery store in Canada and decided to see if I could open one myself. There are several You Tube videos which demonstrate how to open a coconut with a kitchen knife if you don't happen to own a machete. It really was quite easy and the resulting taste was very rewarding.

That makes my list of disliked foods shorter by one.