jeans
Super Nomad
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Registered: 9-16-2002
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COCOS!!!
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)  
Mom always told me to be different - Now she says...Not THAT different
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Natalie Ann
Ultra Nomad
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Registered: 8-22-2003
Location: Berkeley
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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.
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.
.....Oscar Wilde
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jeans
Super Nomad
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Mood: Encantada
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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]
Mom always told me to be different - Now she says...Not THAT different
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M
Nomad
Posts: 392
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Laguna Niguel, CA.
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Mood: looking for joy...
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Bright green
for soft young flesh. Rubbery...squidlike texture. YUMMY!.
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Skeet/Loreto
Ultra Nomad
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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
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jeans
Super Nomad
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Skeet...
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? 
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Skeet/Loreto
Ultra Nomad
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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
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64479
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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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!
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GeoRock
Nomad
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Registered: 3-7-2003
Location: Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Mood: Always have one
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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.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64479
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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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...
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