Story and photos by Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet tM

Copyright all rights reserved

All food photos are of Real food with no photoshop

The audacious and inimitable Travelling Gourmet TM goes to the launch of Vita Coco Coconut Water and…

MOST versatile Vita Coco Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. Well groomed Prinz Pinakatt, the VP for Marketing & Sales of Vita Coco, in his presentation explained that in the 21st Century, people want to drink better and eat better and therefore live better. Prinz was born in Duesseldorf in Germany and I enjoyed conversing in German with him. Prinz expalined, “Vita Coco is now the preferred drink of celebrities like raunchy Madonna and “Cougar” Demi Moore. Vita Coco natural coconut water is produced from coconuts from Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. This beverage is a way to rehydate naturally. In fact in WW2 in the South Pacific USMC Medics tranfused wounded Marines with coconut water when there was no Saline available! That is because coconut water is full of electrolytes. In production, the coconut water is pasteurised for 3 to 4 seconds and then presented in a shelf stable 330ml or 1 liter Tetrapak. From when the coconut is plucked to the time the coconut water is in the tetrapack, the time does not exceed 72 hours. The drink is never made from concentrate, and has Vitamin C plus less than 1% Fruit Sugar or Fructose to ensure consistency, because coconut water from different countries tastes different. The advantages of drinking coconut water are that it has more Potassium than bananas, and is naturally fat free plus cholesterol free too! Their tagline is “Like sticking a straw into a coconut”. One of the BEST things about Vita Coco is that there is NOT ONE drop of non sustainable Palm Oil causing deforestation and polluting poisonous haze in it!

The other new product which will be available in the shops in November is the raw cold pressed 100% organic Vita Coco Coconut Oil. Full of Coconut aroma, you can not only eat it but also wear it by putting it on your skin and hair. It is also suitable for cooking Coconut Rice and even Coconut Oil Butter Chicken. Cholesterol free, it can be used for baking, frying and sauteing.

There was a beauty demo with a beautician mixing the Coconut Oil with Honey or Sugar and Salt to make different lotions and potions…You simply apply it on your hands, face, body or hair. Coconut Oil can also be used as a Make-Up remover.

In between, there was also a nice refreshing Mojito made with Vita Coco Coconut water to sample. I had two! Ha! Ha!

Cooking Demo with Vita Coco Coconut Oil

A cooking demo was next by Chef Dennis of the Fort Canning Hotel.

Appetizer was a zesty Summer Vegetable Salad with Sweet and Sour Coconut Oil Dressing

A light Consomme style Soup of  Hawaiian Chicken and Vegetable with Spiced Coconut Broth arrived next.

The main course was Indian Style Coconut Butter Chicken with fragrant Savoy Coconut Rice. Chef Dennis explained that after braising the chicken leg, it had to be baked in the oven at 165 C for 45 minutes. Something must have gone wrong somewhere because about 6 main courses of the Chicken was served with the meat raw and bloody! However, the mildly spicy sauce and crunchy Broccoli were quite nice.

Dessert was Coconut Cake (what else?) with crunchy walnuts and drizzled with Salted Caramel. It was a tad dry for my palate but not too bad.

So, dear readers, next time forget the unhealthy and fattening Coca Cola with 35mg of sugar or 7 teaspoons in each 330ml can! Instead…reach for Vita Coco Coconut Water!  Ironically, Prinz used to work for OMG! Yes, Coke! I must admit that when I tasted it for the very first time…OMG! Visions of the warm blue Pacific washing over soft beaches of golden sand…and lovely tanned and curvaceous Hula dancers came into my mind…

OMG! Kid Creole! What a lovely bunch of coconuts!!! 🙂