flipFresh Coconut Water from the Shore Stop
Fresh Coconut Water from the Shore Stop
Why this dish? After the rationed, stale fresh water of the Firecrest, the clear, sweet water of a young coconut picked at a shore stop was a blessing for Gerbault. Drinking straight from the nut was touching land with one's lips.
The clear water of a young coconut, opened with a cutlass blow and drunk through a straw. Naturally sweet and thirst-quenching, with nothing added: the simplest and most precious drink of the traveler.
The water in my tank, at the end of a long crossing, smelled of iron and mud, and I drank it anyway, out of necessity. So when an islander would open a still-green coconut with a sure stroke and hand it to me, its cool water seemed the purest of beverages. You drink it as is, right from the shell — there is nothing to add, and that is its whole genius.
- •Young green coconut — one per person (everything)
Fresh Coconut Water from the Shore Stop
The clear water of a young coconut, opened with a cutlass blow and drunk through a straw. Naturally sweet and thirst-quenching, with nothing added: the simplest and most precious drink of the traveler.
Why this dish? After the rationed, stale fresh water of the Firecrest, the clear, sweet water of a young coconut picked at a shore stop was a blessing for Gerbault. Drinking straight from the nut was touching land with one's lips.
The water in my tank, at the end of a long crossing, smelled of iron and mud, and I drank it anyway, out of necessity. So when an islander would open a still-green coconut with a sure stroke and hand it to me, its cool water seemed the purest of beverages. You drink it as is, right from the shell — there is nothing to add, and that is its whole genius.
Ingredients (period version)
- Young green coconut — one per person (everything)
Ingredients
- Young coconut (drinking coconut) — 1 per person (everything)
- Crushed ice — optional (coolness)
- Lime — a few drops, optional (zip)
Method
- Choose a young coconut (still light-colored shell), heavy: that means it's full of water.
- Carefully pierce the top (with a coconut opener or by cutting a lid with a sturdy knife).
- Insert a straw and drink directly, or pour the water into a glass over crushed ice.
- For a zesty version, add a few drops of lime.
- Once the water is drunk, crack the coconut open and scrape out the young gelatinous flesh with a spoon: a bonus dessert.
How it was made : In the tropics, young coconut water was — and still is — the traveler's drink: sterile in its shell, cool, sweet, and hydrating. For a sailor deprived of clean fresh water, it was a free luxury fallen from the trees.
The contemporary twist : Served in the nut with a bamboo straw and a lime slice, it's the perfect travelogue cliché — except Gerbault really lived it.
Sources : Alain Gerbault, À la poursuite du soleil, 1929
Alain Gerbault · Charactorium
