On Saturday I went to the local market with Khun Nok (my housekeeper) and her family on a mission. I was cooking Aunt Sara's coconut pound cake for Bible Study on Monday and I needed shredded coconut. We are surrounded by coconut trees but I'm still unsure how to grate my own. Khun Nok informed me that I can buy fresh coconut at the market. I stop by the local market near our home about once a week to purchase fresh pineapple (supalot), bananas (gluai) and many other exotic fruits like long-gons. I have started buying some rice (kow) and eggs (kai) there as well, it's so much cheaper than the grocery store and fresher. We now also buy fried chicken there on occasion, it's really yummy. Most of the Thai people go there at least once a day. Nok usually goes twice a day for breakfast and a dinner meal. A lot of my friends can't get past the amount of flies in the open market and the language barriers but I just love the adventure and the bargains!
Khun Nok was taking me to a busier Saturday market, I'm posting some pictures from our trip. I got about 1 lb of freshly grated coconut for 20 Baht-about 0.60. For me she peeled the entire coconut before putting it through the grater usually she just haphazardly peels it and the Thai people have lots of brown flecks of outer husk in their coconut. After peeling it she just ran it through a large meat grinder. Khun Nok wanted fresh coconut milk so she grated another coconut and then scooped it out and transferred it to another metal grinder and added water to the mixture. Nok says fresh coconut milk is the best thing for an upset stomach.
The cake turned out tasty even though the fresh coconut was a lot less sweet than our American version, it also was a finer consistency. I served it with fresh supalot and whipped cream.
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