Mission Accomplished!

It wasn't long after my first trip to Gef'Pago cultural village in Inarajan that I decided I wanted to attempt making fresh coconut candy and try my hand at coconut shell crafts.  I thought since these items were so common around Guam that acquiring the right tools for the job would be a piece of cake- boy was I wrong!!  While getting a  machete was an easy task, finding a gkra-dtai was not.  After about 3 months of searching, my wild goose chase ended at Dededo flea market!

Essentially, a gkra-dtai is a small wooden stool with a stainless steel coconut grater affixed to the end. Once your mature coconut has been drained of its water and broken in half, the serrated end of the grater is then placed inside the coconut shell.  Using a twisting motion to scrape out the meat you can neatly make your own fresh grated coconut to use in home cooking.  In Thailand and the Philippines this is the traditional way of grating fresh coconut.

 

I feel lucky to have even found the wooden stool since only two vendors at the flea market were selling stainless coconut graters and out of those two only one had the bench.  The bench was the only one of its kind at the vendor's stall and was buried under some other tools.  I was so intent on finally getting what I had been searching for over the past few months that as soon has I had it in my crosshairs I made a bee line for it immediately and snatched it up at lighting speed! I'm so excited to start using all my new coconut tools; I've got my machete, my coconut husking stick, and now grating equipment!

Comments

[Nicki]

Thanks for the uplifting comment! Yum, coconut. It's almost worth a visit. Keep us posted on the progress of fresh coconut grating.

[Paula Lujan Quinene]

Hi Aime! It looks like you are having a great time on Guam! It appears you enjoy cooking and exercise...to some degree anyways. My husband as well, has a camera in his hand most of the time! I was born and raised on Guam, though I am currently in NC. It looked like you were looking for a Guam cookbook. You can find A TASTE OF GUAM at A&L Crafts in the Chamorro Village. OR, visit www.paulaq.com. Have even more fun on the island!!!!!! I should be home soon!