jeans - 10-25-2003 at 08:38 AM
No...not that crazy, lovable, one-legged guy on the Gonzaga - Chapala Road. I'm talking coconuts.
For decades I've seen the roadside stands all around Baja. There, under a tarp would be a table laden with the large greenish/brown tropical fruit.
I had never stopped to try one until last week.
It was Georock's idea...she said they were delicious. Wow...she was right.
This particular stand was on the road into Tecate. It was operated by a little Indian-looking woman with a VERY serious machete. We picked out our
cocos (30 pesos) and she went to work.
With a few deft whacks of her knife, the top of the coconut is exposed along with a little straw hole. While we sipped out the contents, she worked
on the next one.
When we finish with the drink, we gave it back to her and a few whacks later, the top of the coconut is cut off. I'd never seen anything like it. (I
checked...she still had all of her fingers which is amazing...that knife was really flying.)
Next, out came a scoop-like tool and she pried all of the coconut meat away from the shell. She then poured a chili sauce over it and squeezed a
lime to top it off, stuck two toothpicks in the pile of coconut meat and handed it back to me....
It was delicious! I'm never going to pass a COCO stand again! (which may add considerably to my travel time from now on) 
Natalie Ann - 10-25-2003 at 09:01 AM
Jeans - my first real coconut dropped from a tree on the Malecon in La Paz -
near clobbered DH. Big coconut. We took it back to Cabanas de Los Arcos, where one of the groundskeepers produced and machete and we proceded to
drink/eat/smile like fools. Never much cared for coconut until then. Now it's a regular Baja treat. Glad you've discovered the tasty treats.
jeans - 10-25-2003 at 09:12 AM
I guess the reason I never bothered to stop before was that I ate them as a kid. My mom would buy them...the brown stringy, dry rocks at the grocery
store in Pasadena. The meat was hard & tasteless.
These were soft & chewy and with the chili sauce & lime were wonderful. YUM!
[Edited on 10-25-2003 by jeans]
Bright green
M - 10-25-2003 at 10:58 AM
for soft young flesh. Rubbery...squidlike texture. YUMMY!.
Skeet/Loreto - 10-25-2003 at 03:45 PM
Jeans: Please bear with me for a short story on Coconuts.
Many years ago Betty and Bill Riffe of Loreto{who still reside in the Round House in Loreto} introduced me to a Special Coco.
Take the Nuts and drill a small hole in top and take out the Juice,replace the Juice with your favorite Gin, Vodka, put in the Refrig for about 3
months then take them out put a small hole in the top and get a long straw an slowly start sippin!!!!
Virginia and I planted over 250 Coconut Palms at Rancho Sonrisa, in 6 years they started producing and several were over 3 stories tall.
Skeet/Loreto
Skeet...
jeans - 10-25-2003 at 04:17 PM
I see a potential problem with that story.
If they are as good as you indicate..and I have no doubt that they are...I see a referigerator that is crammed with cocos and no room for food!
Last week I showed "the Girlz" my property where I want to build a Guadalupe Canyon Norte, hopefully before next summer. I was thinking date palms,
but now maybe I
do coco palms too. Do they grow in San Diego? And I'll have to wait 6 years? 
Skeet/Loreto - 10-25-2003 at 05:38 PM
Jeans: Sorry but Loreto is about the North limit on growing Coco Palms.Buy a used Refridg at the Yard Sales ,keep in the Garage for Cocos.
Skeet/Loreto
David K - 10-25-2003 at 11:00 PM
I have to tell you, after reading jeans' story it was real hard not to pull over today as we drove past the coco venders in Rosarito!
GeoRock - 10-27-2003 at 12:28 PM
David K., how did you resist? I know exactly what stand you passed, the one at the north end of the town.
In the Bahamas, I learned how to open coconuts without tools. My boys climbed the trees and knocked them down, or threw rocks to dislodge the tasty
treats.
I personally like to drink some of the coconut milk out, then dump in some gin, sip up the rest on a white sandy beach listening to the gentle surf.
Then a machate wracks it in half and the soft, gooey insides are scooped out. Topped with hot sauce and lime juice...yummmy!
Never pass up a coco stand, life's too short!
P.S. In the Bahamas they eat them plain. I introduced many a native to the Mexican method and they loved it.
David K - 10-27-2003 at 03:56 PM
Actually, the south end between the AM/PM Pemex next to the toll booth and Foxploration on the free road. I saw two coco vendors... Yah, that really
sounds great, as I love coconut...