RaRuRu: Chinatown

we went to Chinatown in Honolulu a few weeks ago, so it's about time i talked about it. the raw highlight was eating a freshly opened coconut! I'd had coconut water in a can before (the sweetened kind sold in Asian grocery stores sometimes) and it was barely natural and too sugary. a lot of people are now into coconut, unsweetened, in cans or aseptic containers. some with flavors or fruit bits included. It it said to be more re-hydrating that water, a good balance of electrolytes, thus making it good during or after exercise. And in WWII coconut water had been used as alternative blood plasma because it is sterile.

the kind you buy off a shelf must be pasteurized and thus not raw, but i do see it included in raw cook books for people that have the availability of coconuts and the muscle to open them.

we'd been walking around in the hot weather and i'd only had that breadfruit for breakfast. my energy was flagging. we went into one shop and saw a cardboard tray on the floor with some coconut husks and a cleaver. we inquired and found that they could open a coconut for us.

we watched as an aging man hacked of the husk of our green coconut.

when he made a hole in the top we were given straws to drink out the liquid inside. the water was barely sweet, but really was refreshing.

after we'd drunk it all, we handed the coconut back to be split completely in two so we could eat the meat out of it. I'd heard that young coconuts, they kind used in raw restaurants for the water and sold in healthfood stores AND is de-husked to the point where it looks like a huge tan pencil tip.... visual please

these have the most water and their meat is supposedly jelly-like in softness. over time, more of te meat hardens, and the there is less water in the coconut. so the ones you can buy at the store that looks like hairy brown bowling balls are older and had hard flesh inside and almost no water. what we had in chinatown was somewhere in between.

the meat was softer and a thinner layer than in a fully mature nut. it was actually scrape-able with a plastic spoon, as opposed to having to pry/cut it out.it was a little rubbery and looked a lot like boiled egg white. a smooth even texture, not like how older coconut has the all the small fibers in the same direction. if that makes any sense. the husk around the inner shell was very wet and fresh.

it wasn't as sweet as the more mature, harder meat. but i still finished the nut.
it sure was a special treat and really hit the spot.

there were other produce to speak of, a few of which i had never seen before, at the many stores in Chinatown. here are some logan a.k.a. dragon eye fruit.