Burnt coconuts

Wherever I go, I make it a point to try the local delicacy because one way to understand the people better is to see and experience how and what they eat. Of course, there are some limitations to what I, as a Muslim, can eat and drink but this has not been a problem. Only rarely does it become a hindrance for example when I encountered almost no halal food at the breakfast buffet table.

I am in Kota Kinabalu again and I have been in Sabah since Sunday. The first couple of days were spent in Tawau. So there I was, on my way back to Kota Kinabalu from Tuaran after a day of work when Mr Lamjin, the head of our Sabah office, suggested we go for a drink of roasted young coconut and barbequed lokan: a large local shellfish. The lokan did not sound too appetizing because I have already had more seafood than I was confortable with since I have been in Sabah but the juice from roasted young coconut sounded interesting. It proved to be a milestone too: I have never had a local delicacy that I so utterly dislike that I could not finish one helping of it until I had that coconut yesterday.

Preparing the coconut was simple. Start a fire, which you will to barbeque the lokan, and dump a few green young coconuts into it. Wait for them to become burnt, fish them out with a metal hook and then remove the husk. Using a sharp parang, open one end and serve. You wil be given a drinking straw and a spoon for the coconut meat. However, because the coconut will still be steaming, you will either have to wait for it to cool before you using the straw or use the spoon to drink it slowly, which was what I chose to do. So I started with some of the coconut meat fro the section that was cut out to form a hole in the coconut. It was pleasant enough, tasted a little weird but it was quite palatable and not much different from what a young coconut meat would taste like. The water however was an entirely different thing. It was, to me, very unpleasant tasting and it left a rather discomforting after taste. The taste lingered all the way back to KK and remained with my for quite a long time yesterday evening. Needless to say that I will probably not be trying this delicacy again, although I may well try the lokan today just out of curiosity.

  A burnt coconut ready for the drinking

A fresh young one

The Lokan shellfish. Note the pen for size.

If you are making your way to Tuaran from KK, I would however recommend that stop for a drink of roasted young coconut juice. The locals say that it helps to lower your cholesterol and possibly you blood sugar too but neither has been clinically proven. Maybe it is worth a try. Don’t let my idiosyncratic taste buds keep you from trying.