Coconut

My father served in the Philippines during World War II.  He didn't talk much about it.  My sister and I knew there was a photo album of pictures from his time there, but we were forbidden to look at it.  So of course we did.  I remember bare-breasted women and some dead bodies.  I cannot verify if my recollection of the dead bodies is real or imaginary, because some years after my father's death, my mother destroyed the photo album.

I don't think the naked women and cadavers bothered me as much as the fact that coconut was not allowed in our house.  Whether it was an exaggeration or not, I don't know, but my father said he had to live on coconut while in the Philippines, and he never wanted to look at it, let alone eat it, again.  So he forbid my mother to buy it.

Meanwhile, everyone else was baking cakes in the shapes of bunnies and Christmas trees and jack-o-lanterns and decorating them with frosting and Baker's Coconut.  I helped bake and ate a lot of cake at my best friend's house next door.  And is it any surprise that my favorite candy bar was Peter Paul Almond Joy or Mounds?

I was never much for sweet drinks, but Pina Coladas spoke to me.  I loved the smell of suntan lotion.  Cadbury Creme Eggs could melt me.  Coconut Shrimp was a meal, not an appetizer.  Shampoos, soaps, and body washes that had the word coconut on the label ended up in my shopping cart.  In my cart today is unsweetened almond-coconut milk.  And there's a reason I always want to travel to the Caribbean.  Okay, the reason is reggae music, but they have coconuts there, too.

You remember Margaret of the Christmas cookie fame?  This morning, she asked if she could stop by to drop something off.  Of course.  She arrived with a small foil-wrapped plate and said, "Open it!  Open it!"  Her excitement tipped me off, and I knew before I lifted that foil what was waiting for me.

Coconut cake!  Margaret, baker extraordinaire, makes the best coconut cake ever!  Today is her husband's birthday.  She had some leftover batter and made a little cake . . . for ME!

Eat your coconut heart out while I fall in love: