Cultural Foods: Coconut Water, Malaysia

Published July 23, 2009 at 11:21 am |

IMG 0037 300x225 Cultural Foods: Coconut Water, Malaysia I’ve had a lot of interesting food experiences while abroad. I’ll share them with you periodically. The first comes from Malaysia. After exploring the Batu Caves, a Hindu Cave with 272 steps, I needed a drink. Our host suggested we have some coconut water. Presumably one of the benefits of coconut water is that it keeps your body temperature cool. At the base of our trek he purchased some for us.

Coconut water is served in the coconut. Ripened coconuts have the meat in them like we know coconuts to have. Before the meat forms, the inside of coconuts is filled with this sweet liquid. A solid coconut is sliced with a giant knife. You can see the cut marks in the photo. Then with a spoon and a straw one can enjoy the refreshing drink.

IMG 0039 300x225 Cultural Foods: Coconut Water, Malaysia Coconut water has a semi-sweet taste to it. It wasn’t refreshingly cold like I was hoping, but it wasn’t tasteless either. For someone who is a picky eater I drank all of my water proudly. The spoon is there if one would like to slice out some of the coconut meat. It doesn’t taste the same as the coconut flakes I can buy at the grocery stores in the States. If you’d like to try coconut water, it’s most common in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. If you ever have some, let me know what you thought by commenting below.