Exploration

This is the coconut we "had" to buy this week because The Backyardigans made coconut milk sound so irresistibly tasty, Gideon just had to try it.  And for $2 from the local chain grocery store, it seemed a worthwhile culinary adventure for all of us.

I used a screwdriver and a hammer to make holes in the black eyes at one end, and upended the coconut on top of one of Gideon's plastic cups, allowing the milky, thin liquid to pass through a fine-mesh strainer on its way out of the rough, stringy shell.  Gideon pronounced the coconut's juice "delicious".  Jeremy pounded the midline of the coconut with my meat tenderizing hammer until it split open, revealing the pure-as-the-driven-snow white flesh inside.  We've all enjoyed sampling little slivers of the meat ever since, as it sits on the counter waiting for a more directed purpose.

If you haven't tried it for yourself, you should.  The sound of the liquid swishing around inside the shell is exciting and tantalizing, even to an adult who's wondered through coconut groves in Thailand.  And the taste of the liquid is sweet, mild, and exotic.  A vacation in a shell.