My Coconut Obsession

     Saying that I am in love with coconut is an understatement. If one were to ask my close friends, they will say that I am obsessed with coconut. I love everything that has to do with coconut. I love the way a coconut tastes, smells, looks, and feels. At one point in my college career I had coconut hair products, coconut body wash, coconut lotion, coconut body spray, and coconut candles. I am always willing to try new products or taste new foods that include coconut.  I've used coconut so much that my boyfriend once said that he associates me with the scent of coconut; to me that was a very good compliment. I love coconut. 

     With that said, when someone asked me if I wanted to try "tembleque" (a Puerto Rican coconut pudding) I was excited. The first time I heard this was  on Monday December 6. We had it for dessert in the monastery. S. Myriam explained that the name tembleque comes from "temblor" which is earthquake in Spanish because when you serve the pudding it shakes. The texture of a tembleque is  more  jello like than pudding. The tembleque that we had on Monday tasted very much like coconut water straight from the coconut. It wasn't too sweet and more water based. Since we slept over at Colegio San Benito last night (I will explain why in a different blog post) Ashley and I didn't pack our lunch so we ate at the cafeteria. Though we didn't tell anyone we were already planning on eating there, everyone kept telling us that we should eat there because they were going to have a very traditional Puerto Rican meal with dessert. The meal consisted of harbichuelas, arroz blanco, lechon, ensalada and tembleque (beans, white rice, roasted pig, salad and tembleque). It was a very tasty lunch but unfortunately since my wisdom tooth still hurts I wasn't able to enjoy most of it because the salt in the meat kept stinging the inside of my mouth. So I simply dove into the best part of my meal, the tembleque (in my opinion because I love dessert). One word: Heaven. This tembleque is what I imagine the food in Heaven tastes like. It was thick, rich in flavor, milk based, and smooth. You could taste the coconut in every single spoonful. It was just delicious! I even asked the cooks who was the one that made the tembleque because I wanted to tell her myself how great her dessert was and how much I enjoyed it. She was so happy. I hope she finds it in her heart to share her very own recipe with me before I leave in May (I'll keep my fingers crossed).If I had any doubt about me not being as obsessed with coconut as I thought I was, this dessert reassured me that I am still obsessed with coconut as I ever have been.

 God bless the hands that helped prepare this meal. Amen.