Post #1271 by woofmutt on Mon, May 6, 2002 10:28 AM

To get the creamy coconut milk one does indeed grate (finely) and squeeze the grated coconut. I've never done this but my advice: eat the coconut, buy the coconut milk (a whopping 99 cents a can at Asian grocery stores, or $2.79 at Safeway.). My older Hawaiian cookbooks talk happily of the convenience of canned coconut milk.

The Polynesians had a special device for grating coconut. In Seattle's extinct Kalua Room, designed by Ed Lawrence, some of the light fixtures were made of "upturned coconut graters...at one end is a piece of sharpened shale on which the natives cut and grated fresh coconut."

Freshly squeezed coconut milk may not be the key to the perfect coconut drink. Sugar brings out a lot of flavor in coconut and some of the odd additives in Coco Lopez probably work to keep the coconut fat seperating out when in your Blue Hawaiian.

As for keeping a coconut...The less liquid sloshing about inside the more likely it's not so great anymore. However; I've cracked open sloshing coconuts and found moldy meat. I'd buy and use in a week or two...Assuming your grocer is getting fresh shipments...Another reason to shop Asian grocers.