Buko (coconut) juice

April 7, 2006
Filed under Food trips & events

For the first time since we moved to the hilly suburb of Antipolo almost five years ago, today was the first time I walked through the streets of the main commercial part of the town with a camera in my hand. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to photograph but the way it turned out, most of the photos I took were of street food and sidewalk food stalls. Hence, the decision to add yet another category–street food.

You see them on the streets pushing their coconut-filled carts all year round. Coconuts grow in abundance in the Philippines and there is hardly ever any shortage. But I don’t think these buko (coconut) juice vendors rake in so much money with their sales than during the hot summer months. I bumped into one every minute or two while walking. And they didn’t seem to be wanting in customers–darn, it was a very hot day!

The buko juice is sold by the glass (disposable plastic cups are used these days). If you look like a “native”, the price is PhP 5.00 per cup. If you look like a tourist, the price will be slightly higher. It doesn’t hurt to haggle.

Street food is street food and I can’t vouch that these buko juices are made under very sanitary conditions. These buko juice vendors though are as much a part of Philippine culture as the noisy, smelly jeepneys that one finds everywhere in the Philippines.