How to Open a Coconut The Right Way!

When I was over in Fiji not so long ago, I attended this really interesting Fijian cooking school called Flavours of Fiji, and as a huge fan of everything cooking, it was a great experience. Although the food turned out a little strange to my Australian tastebuds, it was amazing to see what local crops and goods the people of Fiji used for their everyday cooking.

Making Indian roti.. Tasted amazing!

What I discovered then was that coconut was a huge part of every single dish in Fiji; so naturally, the Fijians would have to crack open dozens of coconuts every week. If you've tried to open a coconut at home, you would understand how surprised I was as I watched our Fijian cook effortlessly split a coconut in less than 10 seconds. So as I write to you today, I hope you watch in disbelief at how easy it actually is to open a mature coconut!

So basically, nobody realises but every single coconut actually has three 'veins' running from the top three black spots.

This is the only good photo I could find that showed these veins. The lighter coloured lines seen on the coconuts are the veins, and you want to strike the middle of the coconut; perpendicular to these veins.

If you didn't understand my wild explanation of where to strike the coconut, here's a diagram!

You'll need something heavy and pointy-edged, such as a whetstone or large butchers' knife, but a hammer will do for those who don't have these utensils.
Hold the coconut firmly in your weaker hand, and strike the coconut as previously stated, on all three veins. Repeat until your coconut cracks along the equator of the coconut. Gently tap your whetstone around the crack and pry open your coconut. Voila! Cracking open a coconut isn't so hard, is it?
Scraping off the coconut meat has still posed as a huge difficulty for me though; does anyone have any good suggestions for getting the meat off, without having to stick it in the oven?
A YouTube video tutorial of this will be up soon, but I'm still putting it together! Feel free to check out my channel though, more videos will be coming soon!

Enjoy your holidays!
- Rachel