The coconut flakes

Women in India have a very particular custom that struck me and I want to tell you about it.

Their cuisine is traditionally very spicy and the food on our palate is damn hot, very good but the impact is decisive, strong and when I happened to eat in an Indian family at the first bite, I felt my throat catch fire.

My instinct immediately led me to ask for a glass of water but it was denied me, explaining the water would’t stop the burning and that I should wait a bit then they would give me something.

We were sitting in the garden and Mrs. Emily went into the house to get the fire remedy for my throat which, at that moment, I felt completely numb and quivered with the desire to soothe the burning.

I saw Emily, with my wonder, coming out with a strange tool that got under a foot and a coconut, then smashed the fruit with a machete, threw the milk inside and began to grate the pulp.

This operation left me completely speechless and the first thought that crossed me was tied to his bare foot, with which she had walked all day and I hoped he didn’t really want to offer me those coconut flakes, a glass of water would have been enough for me.

That was the antidote instead and she gave it to me explaining that, that fruit, had the power to extinguish the spiciness of the spices and by mixing its flakes in the soup, I would get a new pleasant taste of the food and I would soon forget the experience fiery occurred a few minutes earlier.

I couldn’t refuse it, so I ate it and it was one of the most enjoyable dining experiences of my entire life.

From that day on, I had in mind a completely unusual association, linked to the event; I thought that then, every time the snow fell and the landscape became delicate, sweet, silent and souls softened, letting themselves be pervaded by that feeling of calm… the Universe was sending us a message:

“Sometimes it’s necessary to lower the engine revs, otherwise we risk anesthetizing the real taste of life”

Therefore…

“Snow stands to a man as coconut flakes stand to spicy!”