Coconut

Coconut

During my recent stay on Cambodian islands (Koh Rong Sanloen and Rabbit Island) and in Kampot I ate a lot of coconut and this post is to share some experiences and facts. 

Various facts about coconuts (e.g. botanically it's a drupe) here:
https://happyhappyvegan.com/coconut/
https://www.facebook.com/PetiteAnseHotelGrenada/posts/730278509099001
I refer to the parts, from outside to inside as husk, shell, meat (jelly when young), water.

Do not confuse
In my early days of coming to Thailand, I didn't know the difference of coconut water and coconut water and milk. The water is the clear liquid, the milk is white turbid liquid pressed out of the meat.

Coconut tree and palm tree look similar (long smooth trunk without branches), and even the fruit look similar (palm fruit look like a small black coconut).

Young and old coconut
Young coconut is green outside and is harvested for water. There is only little or no meat (not hardened, but as a jelly) inside. Young coconut can easily be cut perpendicular to fiber, and the shell is soft and light colored and can be cut with a knife.

Old coconut is brown outside and harvested for meat. The water fine to drink, but usually discarded. The husk can be split parallel to fiber. The shell is hard and can be opened with a cleaver or hammer. I once used a brick for lack of other tool and broke the brick instead of the shell!
 
I drank the water and ate the meat from several germinated coconuts, ranging from just a small bulb still under husk to leaves 20 cm long. They all were fine (water and meat), I would even say the meat tastes better, and none of them were rotten (whereas half of the ripe I collected from ground were rotten).

How to climb a coconut tree?
In Thailand, they train monkeys to harvest young coconut.

Some humans can climb trees with their bare hands and feet.

In Kampong Chhnang, I saw ladders made from bamboo to climb palm trees.

Here special shoes to climb trees or utility poles.

And these guys have a motorized way to climb trees (nothing new of interest after the first 30 seconds):

Funny
What did the hurricane say to the coconut palm tree? 
Hold on to your nuts, I'm going to blow!

Attention, men: Please do not put your penis in a coconut
https://metro.co.uk/2017/08/08/attention-men-please-do-not-put-your-penis-in-a-coconut-6836284/

Can't help seeing faces in these coconuts (anthropomorphism)*.

Not anthropomorphism, but pareidolia. More examples here:
https://www.awesomeinventions.com/see-faces-in-objects/
https://www.awesomeinventions.com/pareidolia-photos/

Money saving tips
Shortly before my trip to Koh Rong Sanloen, by chance, I saw a video how to open a coconut with only rocks as tool. On the island, I saw coconuts lying on ground and took some home to open with a cleaver. Before, coconut was not in my prey scheme for food.

Young coconut has jelly that is usually discarded. I scraped it off with difficulty through the hole, not worth the effort. But then a friend asked me if I'm done with my coconut (just drinking the water) and asked if he can have the jelly. He had the coconut split in half by vendor, one hit with a cleaver, to scrape off the jelly easily. Why didn't I get that idea?

Coconut meat is very nutritious. One coconut can replace one to two meals, and some days half of my food intake came from coconut meat. Especially useful on the islands, where food choice is limited, at the same time prices are higher and coconuts are abundant. My bungalow's restaurant had a pile of young coconuts and a cleaver to open them, I used that cleaver to remove the husk and split open the coconuts I found.

Much more
Much more can be said on the subject of coconut: coir from husk, carving of shells, various uses of coconut oil, but that's beyond the scope of this post.

Addendum 12feb2022
Manual coconut grater, some funny shapes, in old times. Now electrical at market to press coconut milk out of the flaky meat. But to detach the meat in whole from the coconut, in some cases it's advantageous to put the coconut in the freezer, then the meat can be removed easier with a knife. Water in the meat might crystallize and after the thawing the meat will be less crunchy and visually less appealing. But the freezing makes the meat hard so it breaks off the shell more easily.

From climbing a coconut tree to making a fire, this traditional Polynesian man shared tips and tricks about his culture!
https://mobile.facebook.com/watch/?v=3090778987907664&_rdr

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