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Cosmopolitan Coconuts
| Article
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19917 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1992 |
1,743 Words |
| Author
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Kay Shaw Nelson
Food and travel writer Kay Shaw Nelson has written for
numerous magazines and newspapers, including Gourmet, House
and Garden, Washingtonian, and the New York Times. The author
of thirteen cookbooks, she most recently published A Bonnie
Scottish Cookbook. |
He who plants a coconut tree plants food and drink, vessels and clothing, a habitation for himself, and a heritage for his children" goes an old South Seas proverb. The coconut palm is one of the world's most indispensable plants; in many areas, it is essential for survival. Used in its entirety, from the rough bark to the tops of the shiny fronds, it is aid to have as many uses there are days in a year.
When children are born on India's Malabar coast, their parents plant five coconut trees to support them in adult life, for a coconut tree starts to bear fruit at about seven years of age and averages an abundant crop of nuts all year round until it is seventy or eighty years old.
Americans who treasure coconut primarily in confections or as a garnish should be delighted to learn of its myriad culinary uses.
Traditions And Ancient Texts
The origin of the coconut has never been ascertained. Possibly coconut palms grew first in the Indonesian archiepelago or the Pacific Islands. Ripe coconuts, protected by their thick waterproof husks, could easily float in ocean currents. Driven by winds from coast to coast, they washed p on beaches and rooted.
Coconut is mentioned in ancient historical writings, appearing in ancient Sanskrit texts that discuss the medicinal use of its oil. The coconut was so essential to early life that the "nut of India" was given religious significance.
By the sixth century, Egyptian merchants had brought coconuts from the shores of the Indian Ocean to their homeland. Marco Polo also encountered them during his Asian travels, writing that one of these nuts could provide "a meal for a man, both meat and drink." A midthirteenth-century Chinese writer described coconut flesh as "jade-like white."
It was not until the Spanish and Portuguese explored the Orient in the sixteenth century that the "nut of India" acquired its Western name. Coco was used by the sailors to describe the facelike appearance of the base of the shell, with its three indentations or "eyes." Coco meant "grinning face" or "scarecrow."
European explorers sailing in the South Seas appreciated the beauty and bounty of the coconut palms that graced the
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