Deep fry slices of coconut in its namesake oil and the result is rather intriguing. The flesh loses it's milky qualities, its fibrous texture and becomes tender, almost like a slice of fried mushroom. If I'd had my eyes closed for the first bite and someone had asked me to guess what I was eating, I am not sure I would ever have stumbled on the correct answer.
Piled together with contrasting fresh coconut slices, peanuts, potato chips and a sweet chili sauce for dipping, these treats were part of the service, every time we ordered a cocktail at Navutu Stars in Fiji this past December.
Since I started myself on an healthier eating endeavour today, it's probably just as well that Deep Fried Coconut is now little more than just another happy memory.
Previous Posts about Fiji in 2007 on Becks & Posh
The best Mojito in the world?
Previous Posts about Fiji in 2005 on Becks & Posh
Coconut Buns
Fijian Indian Food & Bay Area Fijian Food
Pit Stop - On the Road
Fresh Coconut Juice
Catch of the Day
Kokoda
The Sweetest Girl
Exotic Fruits
Forbidden Food
Nature's Communal Oven
Lovo
Nama Sea Grapes
Other Resources & Further Reading
Is Coconut Oil Healthy or Not?
Navutu Stars Resort Website
Archives
2007 | About Becks & Posh
2005 | Fatted Calf Post #1
© 2008 Sam Breach
Deep fried cheesecake.
ReplyDeleteBoy was that a mistake. I could feel my arteries clogging with each bite! I really thought I was going to have a heart attack after eating it!
Batter-dipped deep-fried pickles, my (then)-10-year-old brother's culinary adventure of the week. Don't remember if they were dill or sweet, only that they weren't that good...
ReplyDeleteEency weency teeny tiny live shrimp (?) I dropped into a deep fryer, or should I say-- as they wriggled out of my fingers.
ReplyDeletevery crunchy, a little salty.
DANG! I need to try some of that! I love coconut :)
ReplyDeleteUmmm...I adore calf fries (fried, not sauteed)...I know that's not highly unusual, but it's something that most people haven't had :)
First time ever I feel a bit sick reading commentaries on your blog, dear :D
ReplyDeleteWhen my mom wanted to make me a treat, she would make me japanese shrimp chips. I loved to see the translucent chip becomming the crunchiest fluffiest pale pink in the pan. It looked like a weird flower opening just to my taste.
Deep fried coconut sounds intriguing! I'll have to try some the next time I'm in Fiji drinking a mojito!
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting thing I've eaten deep fried is grasshopper, chapulines as they are called in Mexico. They tasted like dirt; thank G-d for tasty cilantro dipping sauces!
The only deepfried things I've eaten are fish and chips!
ReplyDeleteReminds me of chicken-fried chicken!...except I didn't have a cool, minty mojito to go along with it...
ReplyDeleteThe coconut sounds deeee-VINE. I'm not sure what I've eaten deep fried that would be strange--herbs, maybe.
ReplyDeleteI came across a site depicting all that the Scots eat deep fried, and it was scary. Deep fried double cheese burgers are NOT good for arteries...
Beccy what about the alligator we tried in Florida~ probably not considered unusual!!
ReplyDeletesam, that looks yummy! enidd's on a health kick too - want to run with her in the mornings?
ReplyDeleteY'all need to hit the county fair circuit! I've had both a deep fried pickle and a deep fried snickers bar on the same day! The snickers was better -- it gets gooey and sticky. The pickle was a giant salt bomb -- i could only manage 2 bites of it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried it, but how about deep fried cell phone?
ReplyDelete:D
Mmm, fried coconut... some of the street vendors in New York--the ones that also do chestnuts and almonds and stuff--also sell packets of fried coconut. I always make a point to get some when I'm there.
ReplyDeleteAs for the strangest fried thing that's ever crossed my lips, I'm with One Food Guy. A Oaxacan place I used to go to in LA served fried crickets. Sprinkle with chili powder, squirt with lime, eat with beer. The chili and lime masked the dirt flavor, but it couldn't mask the horrible aftertaste...
Had the coconut in Rota when I lived there served with coconut crab and finadeni sauce.
ReplyDeletestrangest thing deep fried....cobra on a stick in Burma
How decadent!
ReplyDeleteI unfortunately never deep fried anything very interesting. I don't think so, anyway...
ReplyDeleteOh, and great sounding coconut!
Deep fried eel head, teeth and all. Very crunchy. When I lived in Kyoto I used to go to this neighborhood hole-in-the wall sashimi place. At the end of every meal the owner chef would fish a live eel out of a tank, lay it on a cutting board in front of us, drive a thin stake through the eel's head, and chop up the body. The body parts would go into a delicious end-of-meal soup. The eel head would be deep fried along with all the bones of the fish we had eaten that night. We would then eat the crunchy deep fried bones along with our eel soup.
ReplyDeleteVery tasty. The eel teeth were still pretty sharp though.
Deep-fried whole tiny frogs. Or should I say frog. I couldn't bring myself to eat more than one, and that just to be polite, though it was mostly just crunchy.
ReplyDeleteDeep fried worms (the tree kind, not the subterranean kind) called "rot duan" or express cars in Northern Thailand. Tastes likes chips :>
ReplyDelete