SC - Re: Wierd but Cool Kitchen Gadgets

[Mark.S Harris]

Kiri said: 
> I did forget about one "weird gizmo" that I have.  It's a board to which a kind
> of hook-shaped piece of metal has been attached.  The outside edge of this piece
> has teeth filed into it.  It's used to "grate" the meat from inside a coconut.
> You sit on the board, with the metal piece in front of you, then take half a
> coconut and grate the meat from inside the shell.  It sounds weird, but it's
> very efficient.  It is used extensively in Papua New Guinea for this purpose,
> and was made for me by my houseboy when I lived there.

I sometimes see coconuts in the grocery here. What is the best way to
'open' a coconut to get at the inside? A big hammer? A saw? Does
it vary depending upon whether the coconut is green or brown and
hairy (I assume the last is ripe or past ripe and the former is
not, and probably not available in my area). Do the brown hairy
ones have coconut milk in them or it is just 'meat' by then?

I was going to ask whether coconuts were known in period in Europe.
Then I looked in my nuts-msg file and found that, surprisingly to me,
they were.

Stefan li Rous
stefan at texas.net