Enjoying Young Coconut

One of my favorite dessert flavorings is coconut. Coconut muffins, coconut ice cream, coconut cookies, Ted’s chocolate-haupia cream pie, the list goes on. No bettah place to have than Hawaii, yeah?

At the KCC Farmers Market, one particular vendor has been selling young coconut for at least the last three of our visits. Chilled in ice water, one is pulled out when you pay your $5. With a sharp cleaver, the fellow cuts off one end just enough to expose the white flesh underneath, then with the corner of the knife, gouges out a little hole. The coconut juice is then sipped through a straw.

There’s quite a bit of liquid in there. When you’re done, you give the coconut back to the guy, who will then cleave it in half, scoop away the tender flesh and give a half shell back to you containing all the meat. The flesh itself is rather bland and has little of the concentrated flavor that desiccated coconut has, but the entire experience was very nice, especially drinking the chilled juice on a hot, muggy day.