Welcome to kube-ology 101. Kube-ology is the study of kube (coconut) and kube-ology 101 is a series of kube lessons that will be given on Wo Se Ekyir from time to time, starting today. In this course, I will bring you mini-lessons that I learn about kube in my bid to become a kube-meister by talking to kube sellers and people who learned about it from growing up in coastal villages in Ghana. I am willing to bet that you will not find this information anywhere else on the internet, but I encourage you to try to find such information and if you succeed, to share your new found knowlege with other course members (Wo Se Ekyir readers). Now on to today's lesson as passed on to you from the Nzema-speaking kube seller from whom I bought 3 kubes this morning on the road leading from East-Legon to the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) in Madina. It is the road infront of Trinity Theological Seminary, Mikesh Natural Hair Salon and Uche's Place (a nigerian restaurant)
To ensure that you remember the main points, I will tell you a story that perfectly illustrates the points.
This morning, on my way to gym I was hungry, but I wanted something healthy so I passed by all the kooko sellers I saw and stopped instead when I saw a man selling kubes packed in a wheel-barrow.
Perfect! I asked him how much it cost even though I already knew that the current market price for kube is 40 pesewas. "40 pesewas" he replied. It turned out that I had about 1.3 cedis in coins so I asked him to give me 2, but to cut the top off only one of them (so I could drink the kube right there),
as I would take the second along with me. He did as I had asked, but i finished drinking the sweet kube juice in only two gulps. I complained that the kube had too little juice and that my thirst/hunger was not satisfied by the small amount of juice. Simply put, aanso me. I told him to break the third kube and this time, I noticed that the kube had plenty juice but that the juice did not taste as sweet as the first one. I asked why, and the kube-meister said that the mature kube's are the ones that have the tougher core or white part that is usually sold with boiled corn in Ghana (and shown in photo),
but the mature kube does not have much juice in it, just as I had just noticed. The younger kubes on the other hand have the soft core, and more juice that doesn't taste as sweet. I found what he told me absolutely fascinating, but I was so excited that I didn't think too much about it. Later when I was alone and back on the road to the gym, I wondered how he was able to pick out the kube with more juice for me, but there was no one to ask. So I'll end the lesson by asking the question: If you have coconuts in a wheel-barrow, how would you be able to separate the mature ones (with little but sweeter juice) from the young ones (which have more juice that's not as sweet) ? Readers, try to find the answer to the question. I will do the same and we'll discuss by posting comments. Until our next kube-ology lesson, this has been your enthusiastic kube-meister-in-training.
OK maybe this is where being from T'adi counts for something :)
ReplyDeleteLook at the 'head' of the kube. All the signs are there.
Interesting. I'm signing up for these kube lessons, though my only interest in kube before now has been in trying to calculate its value to the vendors in economic terms.
ReplyDeleteU can tell if the kube has enuff juice by looking at the fibre/roughage of the coconut.The softer and greener it is... the more juice it contains. If it looks more brownish and and strandy then it contains less juice and has harder core (kaankpe!my favourite!!). I buy cocunuts after church every Sunday.(eevery Sundae!!)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous is right on the money. I too consider myself to be something of a kube conossieur. I sorely wish I could buy coconuts every Sunday... I tried the shrinkwrapped "fresh" kube from some Chinatown store once (actually bought a whole bunch of them to fill the huge kube-less void within), but it tasted like the musty box in which it had apparently been transported once i had bɔ-ed it. Such disappointment!
ReplyDeleteAlso, on a completely unrelated note, you should consider killing the automatic music stream on the main page. It makes your blog NSoSFW!
Nana Yaw, i've always wondered how much people who sell paint brushes in traffic in the mornings when everyone is heading to work and least likely to buy brushes make.
ReplyDeletePK, what's to be found at the head of the kube?
Anonymous, you buy kube every sunday? how much is your monthly kube budget? Might help Nana Yaw determine if the business is profitable:)
Hey quake, what's NSoSFW? One of the readers sent me a note saying how much she liked that i added music because as she put it, "she found all her music here". But if you don't like it, we'll figure out a compromise. Maybe turn on the music for 3 days a week, and have it on 4 days? :)
Not so Safe for Work! I actually like your selections; I just wish they wouldn't start playing automatically when the page is loaded.
ReplyDelete@earthkwaque: gotcha! It is no longer set to play automatically. Thanks for speaking up. If someone else says s/he wants it to play automatically, then we're in trouble. I'm kinda looking forward to having a little drama in here. So far, it's been all too nice and friendly:)Can u help brew some trouble? *i'm only half kidding*
ReplyDeleteYou did that just for me?! Aww medase! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I can definitely help with drama: do a few posts on homosexuality, abortion, Darwinism v. Godism, or the best Ghanaian secondary school and I guarantee things will warm up lickety-split! ;)
Oh, goody! I should have mentioned the music thing too, but I completely forgot... I was just asking myself why I hadn't visited your blog in so long, when I remembered it was because the last time I did so there was music and my pet peeve is blogs with music (just because I usually have my own playing anyway). So this way is better, trust me :)
ReplyDelete