Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Manila buko juice



I started my trip to Manila by joining 3 million Filipinos on the streets of Quiapo waiting for the Black Nazarene pass by. By the time I had spent five hours in the 83 degree heat and been interviewed on TV about my feelings on the black jesus, I was pretty thirsty.

And what better to quench the thirst of a newly-anointed celebrity pundit than coconut juice? Buko juice isn't really juice, it's the water that is found inside young coconuts. In the Philippines it is believed that buko juice has medicinal properties, including replacing lost electrolytes on hot days. In some places it's even used as an intervenous hydration fluid.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find anyone to inject the stuff directly into my veins, but during the procession buko men dotted the streets with pushcarts filled with young coconuts. You could drink the buko juice directly out of the coconut or out of the giant vat of pre-mixed buko juice. I opted for this choice because it also included strips of coconut mixed in the drink to munch on. One glass goes for 5 pesos, or about us $0.11. The perfect drink to keep 3 million devoted Nazarene lovers hydrated.

2 comments:

  1. I hope you got a T-shirt! Or at least a towel.

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  2. Black Jesus? What did you tell them? Did you mention your ancestry?

    ReplyDelete