Little by little, bit by bit, L.A. is chipping away at me. First: I joined a gym. Then I started cooking quinoa. Most recently, I met my friend Isaac (pictured above) in Silverlake for coffee; only Intelligentsia was so packed, we agreed to a change of venue and journeyed down the street to a juice bar. Isaac ordered the green concoction that you see him holding and I bought myself a coconut water.
Isaac’s green drink, which I sipped, is the kind of thing you see a lot of around here. For example, Gaby of What’s Gaby Cooking–a fellow L.A. resident–will often upload pictures of green drinks that she drinks to Instagram. These omnipresent green drinks, like Isaac’s, often contain juiced kale and green apple. After taking a sip of Isaac’s, I have to say (and again, this may be L.A. chipping away at me) I kind of liked it. The flavors were so dynamic and unexpected, I could imagine that drink poured into a beautiful white bowl and served at a high end restaurant like Jean-George garnished with creme fraiche and poached shrimp. Stranger things have happened.
As for my coconut water, this was my first time ordering such a thing:
I’ve seen people mention it on Twitter. Amanda Hesser, who mentions it in this Grub Street food diary, is one of those people. I’ve always been curious about it, seeing it advertised at the health food store below my old apartment in New York. The time had come: I took my first sip.
And it tasted like sweet, coconut flavored water. Only, presumably, this isn’t water that’s been flavored with coconut; it’s actual coconut water that you find inside a coconut. That’s kind of cool.
Apparently, it’s also very good for you. Or maybe not. According to Wikipedia: “Coconut water has been marketed as a natural energy or sports drink due to its high potassium and mineral content. Marketers have also promoted coconut water for having no fat and very low amounts of carbohydrates, calories, and sodium. However, marketing claims attributing tremendous health benefits to coconut water are largely unfounded.”
Because it’s so sweet, I’m not sure that I would drink coconut water as an alternative to actual water. I might drink it as an alternative to a soda or a sports drink in the late afternoon; but even then, I’m probably better off drinking water water.
More interesting to me is the idea of using coconut water as an ingredient. I notice them adding it to Smoothies at my local juice bar (yes, there’s also a juice bar on my street); I could imagine adding it to a bowl of fresh fruit and garnishing with mint and toasted coconut to make a kind of summer coconut fruit soup. Or adding it to a tropical drink–like a Mai Thai or daiquiri–that might be interesting too.
As L.A. continues to chip away at me, and I continue to sample green drinks and coconut water, who knows what I’ll be doing next: a cleanse? A tummy-tuck? Tongue acupuncture? Do me a favor, if it comes to that, please unplug my blog. We have to draw the line somewhere.
