Goin' Coconuts

Our world traveler friend, Steve, was back in Thailand to teach at a seminar, this time right here in Pattaya.  He was only here for a few days, and with Tim's hectic schedule, we were having trouble finding a time we could get together.  But there was no way we were going to have him this close and let him leave without some kind of get-together.  We planned to have him come for dinner on Wednesday evening, after which he would spend the night in Bangkok for his early morning flight home.

I planned to cook a nice baked salmon with mango-avocado-pineapple salsa, and purchased all the fancy ingredients I would need.  This included coconut, and I have not found shredded coconut here like we have at home, so I decided to try my hand at using fresh coconut.  Coconuts are always in great supply here, with many roadside vendors and different varieties on the market shelves.  I bought a coconut that already had the husk trimmed away and was shrink-wrapped in cellophane.  These look nothing like the dark brown, grapefruit-sized coconuts you might see in the states.  I turned to Google to help me figure out how to handle it.

These cellophane-wrapped items are young Thai coconuts; we often see people drinking from them with a straw.  The internet advises you to keep the cellophane on them when cutting, because they are treated with some chemicals to keep them from getting moldy(!)  I cut away chunks of the outer part until I hit the hard, inner shell.  Then I gave it a couple of sound whacks with the heel of a knife, creating a crack in that shell, which enabled me to pry the top part of the shell off.

The inside held quite a bit of liquid, and a much thinner layer of coconut meat than the more mature coconuts.  The consistency of the meat is much softer, too, and peeled away from the inner walls with some effort.  It isn't really "shreddable," so I basically sliced it into strips and attempted to toast it in the oven.

How did it come out?  Not so good.  It took a good deal of effort for what, to me, was little reward.  I tasted the coconut water, knowing how it is supposed to be good for you, but found the taste objectionable.  It reminds me of the smell of carved pumpkins, not at all the delicious sweet coconut of a cake or an Almond Joy.  I tried adding some to my iced tea - blecchh.  Most of the websites I looked at promoted the use of young Thai coconut in smoothies, and really no other suggestions for its use.  I could see why.  I abandoned the inclusion of coconut in the recipe all together.

In the mean time, Steve's plans had changed; he needed to get back to Bangkok earlier on Wednesday, so we just managed to get together for drinks on Monday evening after Tim got home from work.  Steve was staying at the Dusit Thani, just down the road from us, so we met him in his hotel's lobby.  We found a lounge with big, comfy chairs and a pair of lounge singers playing to a largely-empty room.  We enjoyed chatting with Steve - he always has a lot of interesting things to say, and, of course, the usual college memories were revisited.  So glad we were able to meet up, if only for a couple of hours.

Now I had all this food for a fancy meal, so we invited Mika and her family to come for dinner on the weekend.  Her husband was scheduled to run a marathon in Cambodia that weekend, but the little one wasn't feeling well, and her husband was still recovering from his Pattaya marathon only a few weeks earlier.  But, by the end of the week, everyone was feeling better, and they decided to go after all.  Although I looked forward to having them for dinner, I was happy that they were able to make the trip.  Cambodia sounds like a fascinating place, and having read "Temple of a Thousand Faces," I knew Angkor Wat would be amazing.

So the fancy meal was just for the two of us.  I cooked a lovely dinner for Tim the day before he left for India, and had nice leftovers for some delicious salmon tacos during the week.

That Thursday, I had planned to shop and eat lunch near the language school when class was finished, so I told the driver he could come pick me up a couple hours after class.  Mika had a restaurant she wanted to try in Royal Garden, a small mall I'd not visited before.  Since we didn't have a driver, we decided to ride the Baht bus, which we caught on the main road near school, and rode it right to the door of the Royal Gardens.  I am quite spoiled with a driver always available to me,  and rarely need alternate transportation (at least up until this month).  Mika was concerned for my welfare riding the baht bus, although she does it regularly. She asked me, "Are you all right, your majesty?"  So funny.

We ate at a place called Bon Chon, a Korean chain with a menu similar to Buffalo Wild Wings, without the huge selection of sauces.  With my newly-acquired Korean food experience in London, I ordered the pork bulgogi, and Mika opted for the chicken wings.  After we ate, Mika showed me a place on the 2nd floor called Kidzone (I think).  It's a cute play area with lots of stations where the kids can dress up and role-play - great for stimulating the imagination.  She has brought her daughter here a few times.

Chef Momo

The second floor also has a Ripley's Believe It or Not, with all kinds of creepy dolls in glass cases with some very troubling descriptions.  Yikes.  Something fun for the tourists with a yen for the macabre, I guess.  Still, Pattaya has a little something for everyone.  In fact, they just released a new video promoting travel to our fair city.  All the sights you see in this video are pretty much what I see on a daily basis.  Enjoy!

Visit Pattaya