Coco Jello!!!

So what if I'm sooooo like 5 minutes ago? I'll still say it.

I've discovered Nata de Coco.



Of course you can argue that the thing has been in packaged existence for more than a decade now. But until recently, I haven't really paid attention to it.

So much so, that it has led me to Google the thing. And here's what I came up with:

1. According to the Dept. of Science and Technology, we owe our chewy coco dessert to this man: Mr. Teodula Afrika of that really, really old school along Espana, Manila.
(As an aside, the makapuno, a less resilient relative of our coco companion, was developed in the 1970s by a Dr. Guzman who called her creation a "mutant coconut". Bet you won't look at your halo-halo the same way again, will yah?)

2. Apparently, as it is with cheese, Yakult, beer and vinegar, nata de coco traces its beginnings from little microscopic animals we call bacteria. Now if only the more complex organisms like homo sapiens could just be as useful...

3. Other than dessert, nata de coco has been found to have some non-food applications:

- bacterial media
(made from bacteria, so it's home sweet home, i guess.)

- wound dressing
(here's an idea: dress your wound AND have dessert! --- yummmm...)

- acoustic diaphragm for audio products
(if your mp3s start to sound coco, now you know. Hey that rhymes! Ain't I soooo clever??!?!)

- cloth
(Hungry? Eat your shirt.)

- computer chips
(Coco computers! what will they think of next?!)

- candles
(They make everything into candles. I mean, I won't be surprised if they made them out of used bubble gum. Eww.. that's just gross - even for me...)




That said, I enjoy my coco jello with a twist of calamansi.

If I ever get around to doing it, I was thinking of getting shaved ice, sweetened pandan syrup and topping it off with a generous helping of nata de coco cubes.

Then I'd give it some awfully original name like
"nata de coco over shaved ice and pandan syrup".

Think it'll work? If you get to do this before I do, let me know.