Sea coconut
"Unlike the regular coconut, which offers rich, creamy flesh and delicious nectar, the sea coconut is all flesh and no nectar. In a surprising twist, you’ll find its flesh tastes like sweet, faintly tangy coconut nectar—a coconut nectar jelly, if you will."
Wan Yan Ling - Serious Eats
Some time ago now, round about the time I was talking about lychees, my Malaysian friend sent me this picture of a dessert they had had which featured sea coconut. Now I had never heard of sea coconut, other than the fact that coconuts are associated with islands and the beach and that the coconut often falls into the sea and floats away until it finds somewhere to germinate. So I stored it away for future reference. Today is the day I decided to investigate.
And I am a tiny bit confused as there seem to be two, no three, different plants with the name sea coconut, one of which is endangered - so surely not the provider of desserts for Malaysians? And on further investigation I discovered that indeed it is not. But a little bit about it first as it is a remarkable plant. And according to almost everyone it is the true sea coconut.
"It holds five botanical records: It produces the largest wild fruit so far recorded, weighing up to 42 kg,(although domesticated pumpkins and watermelons can be much heavier); the mature seeds weighing up to 17.6 kg are the world's heaviest, The seed upon germinating, produces the longest known cotyledon, up to four meters (13 feet). The female flowers are the largest of any palm and Lodoicea is the most efficient plant known at recovering nutrients from moribund leaves."
"one of the plant's archaic botanical names, [is] Lodoicea callipyge, in which callipyge is from Greek words meaning 'beautiful buttocks'" Wikipedia
This plant is a native of the Seychelles and it's botanical name is Lodoicea maldivica which implies it's from the Maldives and I think originally the scientists thought that it did indeed come from the Maldives. But no - it was merely the seeds that were swept up on to Maldives beaches. They actually came from the, then, uninhabited Seychelles. But in 1768 Dufresne discovered the true source. Prior to that popular mythology put forward a different origin:
"it was believed by many to grow on a mythical tree at the bottom of the sea." Wikipedia
The other thing I discovered about its botanical name is that the Lodoicea bit derives from Lodoicus the latinised version of Louis, and the plant was named in honour of Louis XV. They didn't explain why though. I'm guessing that Dufresne, who discovered it's origins in the Seychelles, was the one to name it in honour of his king. Louis XV was on the throne then.
The nut itself was known before this time though, because it did indeed fall into the sea and float away to the east - to the Maldives and beyond to Sri Lanka, so I'm not sure what it would have been called then. Which made me look up when botanical names started to be used. Well since the Greeks and Romans it seems. Linnaeus, whom we often think of as the guy who started all this was in 1753. And prior to him there was a guy called Leonhart Fuchs (1542) and prior to him the Greeks and Romans. So it must have had some other name before the one it is known by today. If you want to know more about the history of botanical names go to Wikipedia - well as a starting point anyway.
"nobles in the sixteenth century would often have the shells of these nuts polished and decorated with valuable jewels as collectibles for their private galleries." Wikipedia
So it was a valued plant for centuries. But back to the plant itself. it almost became extinct as all the seeds were collected and sold - either for food or medicinal purposes, or as, we have seen, for decoration. There were also fires which destroyed some of the planted trees. Now it is heavily protected and there are a few plantations in the Seychelles on just two of the over hundred islands that make up the Seychelles. There was no reference to them being grown commercially elsewhere in the article, and any that are exported have an official serial number.
The second plant bearing the common name of sea coconut is Maniceria sacciferia, which seems to be from central and south America - mostly Costa Rica. This looks completely different - it is round and actually is not much eaten by humans. Animals eat it though. It's main use seems to be as a material for thatching houses as the leaves are some of the largest you will find on a palm tree. It's called sea coconut because it often winds up on beaches, (in America and the West Indies), having been carried by the sea - but then, as I said at the beginning of this article, virtually all coconuts are. So why this particular one gets that name I really don't know. It's quite a curious looking thing though.
And then I found that the one my friend had eaten is more than likely something different again - the fruit of the toddy palm or Borassus Flabellifer. It has the same 'beautiful buttocks' look though.'
And the dish my friend sent me a photo of is probably a version of a traditional Chinese dish called Tong Sui - or sugar water.
"a lightly sweetened broth of nutritious goodness—an extension of the traditional Chinese medicine belief that all food (even dessert) is medicinal and can help bring your body into better balance and health." Wan Yan Ling - Serious Eats
Moreover the sea coconut most probably came out of a tin because, "few market stalls carry it as the fruit sours quickly in the tropical heat." It also seems to be a tricky thing to cook from scratch - first you have to peel it, then,
"the flesh is sliced into quarter-inch thick loops and separated into “firm” and “tender” piles. Firm-fleshed portions of the fruit have to be simmered for a longer time to reach a desired softness (think young, coconut flesh), while care has to be taken not to simmer the softer-fleshed portions into oblivion." Wan Yan Ling - Serious Eats
So probably not for your average cook. It's a Cantonese dish and extremely varied in its contents. The version from Serious Eats, looks much like the one my friend ate though. So there you go - sea coconut, coco de mer. Well really I think that means all coconuts. I've never seen any of the fresh fruit here but you can probably buy the tins in an Asian supermarket. Melbourne has lots of them. You just have to be in the right suburbs. I'm waiting for one to appear in Doncaster Shopping Town, although there is a small one in Templestowe already. I should look in the supermarket and see if they have it there.
