Available and affordable, coconut juice in Saigon offers not only a valuable natural drink but also an exciting lifestyle
Your question of which the most valuable and affordable drink Saigon has to offer is may lead to multiple-choice answers. To cut a long story short, therefore, Saigon Stories suggests its own favorite: coconut juice which is available along the streets across the city.
In order to know more about academic studies of coconut juice’s health value, one should surf the Internet. That the juice is rich in vitamins and minerals goes beyond dispute, though. What should be added may be the fact that coconut juice is arguably one of the best refreshing natural drinks in this tropical city.
Coconut juice is close at hand to thirsty people in terms of both availability and affordability. Drop by any drink shops and you’ll find it on the menu. For the backpacker, however, just walk along the streets in the downtown and he or she may pump into a peddler selling coconut juice.
It’s easy to recognize such a peddler. Saigon Stories will show you how. On the sidewalk, coconut juice is sold on three-wheel push-carts. Please notice what those carts in HCM City (and Vietnam) are like. A typical cart consists of a rectangular metal trunk of about four feet wide by six feet long with two wheels on the front. The third wheel is on the rear, often with a saddle for the driver.
The trunk is really “the office” of coconut juice peddlers, on which they display all their tools and goods. Several wooden Flanks are placed on top of the trunk, where peeled coconuts show off their value. Next to the coconuts is an ice bin in which coconuts are stored cold.
The bottom of the trunk serves as peddlers’ storage of fresh, intact, “unpeeled” (as opposed to the peeled ones on top) coconuts. The trunk is also the peddler’s “litter bin” where peeled coconut skin is kept for later use. After being dried, the skin can be used as fuel.
To expatriate backpackers, watching a coconut juice peddler at work may provide exciting experience. Stay focused on his dexterity and his knife. There’s nothing special about the peddler’s knife as it is just a cheap one made of ordinary steel. However, in his hands, the knife turns out to be a magic tool.
In one of his articles, Cong Thang, an ex-reporter and now a sub-editor of the Saigon Times Group, told the story of veteran Vietnamese folklore music professor Tran Van Khe. Thang wrote that Prof. Khe recalled how delightful expatriate visitors to Vietnam were when they watched peddlers peel coconut skin.
Coconut peddlers’ outcome may be likened to that of a Westerner after the latter has peeled off an orange with a knife. What we have after the “peeling process” is almost the same: a long band of the fruit’s skin. The difference, however, is the orange skin is soft while that of a coconut is rather hard. So, coconut peddlers must have a suitable knife and apply adequate force to get their job done.
As the peddler’s knife moves on, the green coconut skin goes off to reveal the white color inside. Then the peddler has to dip the freshly peeled coconut into a solution to keep the white. Otherwise, the exposed skin will soon turn grey, and the coconut will lose its attractiveness.
Peddlers often arrange peeled coconuts in the form of a pyramid (as described above) to attract buyers’ attention. Meanwhile, some of them are stored in an ice bin. Peddlers may break the top of coconuts to insert a straw.
Now it’s time for you to look for your small change. Pay VND5,000 (roughly 25 U.S. cents) to have a peeled coconut with all its fresh juice. One coconut is normally enough, but if you want another, no problem at all!
You can choose a peeled coconut or an unpeeled one. To be on the safe side, our sub-editor Ton That Thien advises that we should choose only intact coconuts.
In this fast pace of industrial life, Saigonese feel more and more invaded by industrial comforts, including ready-to-use foods and drinks. Everything is manufactured and packed or canned. In the world of fast food, fresh coconut juice is among the few Nature is still offering the residents of Saigon.
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