Coconut love story

'Why do all Europeans like coconut so much?' - my Burmese friend Phyu Phyu asked me yesterday during  lunch when we were eating Burmese traditional dessert made with coconut.  I didn't know what to say besides that it's tasty :) And obviously it doesn't grow in our part of the world.

So after one month of living in Asia I had to try coconut. I tried it Thailand once and it was heavenly delicious! But here in Yangon they don't sell it on every street corner as they do in Bangkok - apparently you need to know special places to buy it.

Phyu Phyu told that she knows one good place which is a special coconut market near Shwedagon Pagoda. We agreed to go there on Sunday.

On Sunday morning she picked me up and we drove to the market. Indeed, it was a street full of coconut sellers. I asked Phyu Phyu where do they bring coconuts from and she told that some of them just take it from the pagoda garden, some of them are brought from villages around. 'Coconut grows everywhere, so no problem for supply', she told.

We bought 10 coconuts as it was cheaper to buy by 10 from a trusted lady. We paid 4 000 kyat which is around 4 USD. Coconuts here are huge, way bigger than in Thailand.

The lady is cleaning the coconut skin. She does it super fast!

The seller lady asked if we want coconuts cleaned. If they cut the skin, coconut should be eaten within 5 days. Otherwise it stays about 2 weeks.

I was so happy with my coconut hunt!

So today once I got home after work I decided to have some for dinner. It took me a while to open the thing - the shell is quite hard and the knives we have are probably not the best for coconut opening.

Anyway, I was so excited to try the juice and the meat of the nut once it was finally opened!

Poor coconut suffered big time while I was trying to cut it open.. :(

But to my deepest disappointment, the juice was not sweet at all.. And the meat either :( I felt betrayed ...

I hope it was just one bad coconut. I have 4 more to go... :)