It’s World Coconut Day! The tropical fruit is one of those foods that people seem to either love or hate. I am all about it: coconut cake, coconut cream pie, macaroons, and curries. Oddly enough I’m not crazy about the flavor in cocktails, with the notable exception of the Pina Coladas at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They are to die for.
Are you cocoNUTS or cocoNOTS, Deadsplinters? Share your favorite recipes, maybe you have one for a cocktail that will change my mind. Or defend your dislike.
…don’t generally have strong feelings about coconut…appreciate the milk in thai curry sauces but not on its own
…& definitely favor the red bounty bars over the blue ones…because…well…dark chocolate is just better than milk…there, I said it…because it’s true
…as I’m 100% certain is undeniable & will thus not be contested (?)
im seconding rip…cept for on the bounty bars…those things are just evil regardless of what colour they are
but yeah…dont get a whole lot of coconut here…other than in curries
the supermarkets dont really stock them fresh…which is a shame…. i bet throwing a couple of them fastball style would clear out the goddamn lane blockers having their social moment real quick
I’m guessing Bounty Bars are the same as Almond Joy and Mounds here. I definitely prefer Mounds- dark chocolate and no nuts.
Do they sell bags of shaved coconut there? Summer without coconut cream pie is a sad thing.
mounds look about right…no nuts in bounty….sides from the coco nuts….
im guessing we probably do have bags of shaved coconut…but ive never actually looked for them…. so cannot confirm
…maybe not as such…in that the label probably wouldn’t say shaved…they don’t call them shave(d) ice, either…but that’s a whole other thing
…I haven’t ever looked for the stuff in a UK shop but I’m sure grated/shredded coconut is available some places…if regular supermarkets don’t have it then a place that specializes in a particular cuisine will…maybe a carribean one
…as it happens I’m not much for coconut (or really most/any) sweet/desert pie(s)…I’d take a lemon sorbet, though…or if I’m really lucky blood orange
…despite having made it to italy once or twice over the years I will confess that the best sorbet I think I’ve ever had was from a place called molly moon’s in seattle & was blood orange & ginger beer flavor…apparently it was a temporary special & I’ve never seen it on the board again but this was years ago & I still think of it wistfully from time to time
…but pies I think at a formative age my brain determined were a savory thing that could be followed by desert because those seem to be the only sort I really like?
We used to have a gourmet popsicle shop that had killer blood orange ice pops. They didn’t survive the pandemic sadly.
I’ve gotta agree on the dark chocolate.
Another great Puerto Rican coconut drink is Coquito, which is big at Christmastime. You can make it without rum for the kids and non drinkers.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/coquito-7436353
I think I’d like this and will add it to the Christmas Eve menu, thanks!
Oh yes. At our Holiday Open House, which is a wonderland of intercultural exchange, one couple always brings two bottles of homemade and highly alcoholic Coquito. What a lovely Christmas tradition.
A couple of weeks ago Keitel in a DUAN brought up one of my idols, Pia Zadora. It prompted me to look for a Pia Zadora recipe so I could get an FYCE out of her but no luck. The only thing I found was that Pia has a favorite Italian restaurant in Las Vegas, Piero’s, where apparently she hangs out, and they made up a very simple drink and named it after her. Let’s let Pia describe it:
Thomas Pynchon himself couldn’t stretch that far enough to get an FYCE out of it.
I like dry vodka martinis but at least need a hint of vermouth and prefer a twist of lemon over the onions and olives.
Yes, me too, exactly, although purists would argue that what you and I are drinking are not martinis at all, since vodka rather than gin and lemon rather than olives. However, what we’re drinking is more than halfway to the famous James Bond Vesper Martini:
https://www.liquor.com/recipes/vesper/
…I once heard someone who’d crewed on what used to be the royal yacht describe mixing a drink for the then-queen-mother which called for “a hint of vermouth” & the instructions were very precise but firmly tongue in cheek
“pour a capful of vermouth, bring it to the lip of the glass, maybe swirl it around the top a couple of times…& pour.it.back.in.the.bottle.it.came.out.of.”
…make of that what you will…doubtless it’s the sort of thing they used to tell me “builds character”…but I found it oddly endearing somehow…probably because the lady telling the anecdote seemed to be fondly reminiscing?
I don’t mind Coconut, but this song about infidelity and pina colodas… ugh.
It’s always bizarre to me to see what recording artists looked like back before MTV put them on screens. Why, when I was a child, we had NO IDEA what Rupert Holmes looked like, nor did we want to!
Leads to awkward moments like this…
Just wow.
Reminds me of the film “Sorry To Bother You” except worse.
The song, like most pina coladas, is cloyingly sweet and makes me feel a little sick.
And I bet you make a hell of a coconut pie!