curry chicken thigh, coconut milk rice

I just now realized coconut milk is what the stuff that guy at Whole Foods instructed me to make. I asked him what he intended doing with the coconut shavings he was scooping from economy bins. 

He was a thin and slight odd old man dressed in tight fitting bold colored cycling lycra, Contrasting light blue and mustard yellow zip zappy pattern and bicycle helmet and serious cycling shoes. He must have been seventy or eighty years old. 

"What are you going to do with that?"

He was kneeling and looked up at me standing there nearby and regarded me top to bottom for an uncomfortably long time, appraising what sort of punk asks questions like that.  I stood there with blank expression, yes, it is a real question.

I passed his inspection and he powered into sincere description of healthy benefits of blending coconut flakes with water for a long time, how to do that precisely, simple enough,  then strain it with cheesecloth. Seemed like a bother and a mess. So I did. I bought some and tried it. 

Now you may be thinking, Whole Foods, ick, don't like them, too expensive, that place is for hipsters, not me. I wish you could change your attitude because you can find things in there that you cannot find elsewhere and the people there are not as described, no, on the contrary, the people who shop there and especially the people who work there are friendly, usually young, truly interested in their product, their brand, and their work, they are interesting people and engaging. The opposite of everything that I read about them online. They love, and I mean love talking about food. Such was the case this day too. 

His story was very long. He kindly answered all other questions best he could. I still do wonder though, if the coconut in those bins can be used for cakes. It looks like it can. I still have some. 

He did not tell me when chilled that it forms a very thick layer of coconut fat on top. And that shows you how much coconut fat you are consuming.  It must be processed again if chilled. And that fat is the same fat marketed in jars. And the liquid produced by blending with water is the same as this liquid in these tins. I'm saying, you can easily make coconut milk yourself, this same stuff, by processing a scoop of coconut flakes with water through a blender. And you can get those coconut flakes in the economy bins at places like Whole Foods. And if you do, then you join the class of eccentric oldster grandpa cyclists who are health oriented.