I don't know about you, but when I think of coconut, my mind sees this:
In Ghana, the coconuts are fresh from the trees, locally grown and harvested. They come in a green outer shell, which is trimmed until the inner shell is revealed. It makes sense that they wouldn't ship coconuts to Canada like this... but it was neat to see.
The top is then sliced off so that you can drink the coconut milk.
Once you've finished the coconut milk, they chop up the inner shell, and scoop up the edible coconut meat with one flick of the knife.
Seriously, it's nothing like coconut in Canada, where you have to fight to separate the coconut meat from the shell... with fresh coconut in Ghana, it practically slides off. It's thinner, flexible, almost rubber like. Kind of like chewing on coconut silicone, except it tastes good!
The locals amused themselves watching us try it, but it's their quote that I found most amusing...
"Your eyes... your eyes are green, you have eyes like coconut!"
I don't normally let the camera approach close enough to see my eye color, but once in a while, it happens.
I thought I'd heard it all when it came to my green eyes, but that was one I didn't imagine. I nearly had coconut milk coming out my nose at that one! What's ironic is that they have eyes like coconut too -- golden brown, like the coconut we have back home :o)
