Aug 23rd 2016 - Mauritius - day 7

So I skipped a day writing, but I rationalized it with the fact that I sorted and resized some pictures taken in Bali and posted them to my blog.  So time was in fact spent benefiting my blog, and hence benefitting my writing.

One thing to note is that I am writing the blog on one day and then posting it the next,  after reading it again in the morning.  This hopefully helps minimize the need to edit my posts later for grammar mistakes.

That being said, today I spent several hours making King Coconut Wine from a recipe I found on the web originating in Sri Lanka.

Above our house is a coconut tree full of ripe coconuts.  I got on top of the roof and cut down a good 20 or more coconuts.  Then using s serrated knife a opened them (with much work) and drained the coconut water out of them.  After collecting a fair amount…probably 2 gallons or so, I took it in the house, strained off any particulate, and boiled it.  Then I added quite a bit of sugar, let it cool down, and then with Avy’s help added yeast.

We bottled it into several water bottles, and put a balloon with a small hole pricked in the top over the ends of the bottles.  From what I read in roughly 14 days I will have drinkable coconut wine, but like all wine, to some extent the longer it sits the better it may taste. If it tastes bad, I have been advised by my friend Hans in Boracay to make coconut vinegar out of it.

Here are some pictures or the process.

Earlier this week the landlord told me that it is possible to catch shrimp by hand in the tide pools across the street. He said they are the best bait for fishing. I figured that he was talking about ghost shrimp (sand shrimp). I just walked across the street about 20 minutes ago and caught a shrimp with my bare hands using the light from the headlamp I was wearing...and it wasn't sand shrimp.. it was a normal shrimp.

I then brought it back to the house and showed the ladies.  Both were surrised because it took me literally 2 minutes to catch it.  

Then after show and tell I threw it in a frying pan, fried it up and ate it for Avy on the spot. She seemed a bit confused as to the whole process and as to why I ate it. I guess besides using them for fishing I am going to have to go and collect a whole bunch of them one of these nights for a shrimp stir fry.