Coconut Grater
By Ezryn S.
8 April 2008
Have you ever bought a pack of coconut milk? Have you ever wonder, before the invention of electricity and machinery, what was used to get coconut milk? Let me introduce you to our humble coconut grater. It has been with the family for as long as I could remember.
The grater consists of two parts: a little foldable stool, and a blade. The stool was made of a strong wood. A joint in the middle of the stool allowed it to be folded for easy storage. Unfolded, the stool rises only a few centimetres above the floor. Attached at one end of the stool is the jagged blade.
To grate a coconut, the coconut shell has to be broken into half, revealing the white flesh inside the shell. A person sits on the stool and holds the coconut shell. With the white flesh pressing against the jagged blade, the shell is twisted in a swift motion. The motion is repeated until no white flesh left in the shell. The finely grated coconut will fall into a bowl placed underneath the blade. Later, coconut milk is manually squeezed out of this finely grated coconut.
Even though it is labour intensive, we still use this traditional method because it produced a richer and creamier coconut milk. Plus, some sweat would help to burn the calories we get from eating those delicious food made from coconut milk!
