PANI POPO: SAMOAN COCONUT BUNS
Confession time. Have you ever stood in your house in the middle of winter, an open plastic container in your hand, taking sniff after sniff of...
...suntan lotion? Consider me guilty.
I just can’t help it. Sometimes when the snow just won’t go away, you need a reminder of warmer times past and future. Scent is the most powerful of the senses, according to many scientists, and can conjure up memories faster than touch or even sight. There’s even recent research that says we subconsciously choose our mates and partners partially based on how they smell to us.
So, back to my clandestine meetings with the Coppertone bottle. For me, the scent of suntan lotion reminds me of Hampton Beach, NH,where my family took a vacation nearly every summer. I remember my parents slathering up three kids, trying to work the thick white cream into our skin so we weren’t too streaky as we frolicked in the sand and surf. It reminds me too of my Dad, who never put enough lotion on himself, earning him the nickname “Lobster Legs.”
For a truly magical memory experience, give me a bottle of lotion heavy on the coconut scent. With one inhale I’m 17 again, spending a month in the Caribbean living on a desert island with only college students, goats, and iguanas for company.
We ate coconuts freshly picked from the palms, drank coconut water, coconut milk, ate coconut ice cream during our week in San Juan, and came to revere the humble coconut for all it could give us.
When I came across a recipe for Pani Popo, a sweet, soft bun bathed and baked in coconut, I was enchanted. When I made the first batch and tasted that first bite I was transported back to that island and beyond, into my lushest coconut dreams. The tender bun melted in my mouth, the thick sauce sweet on my tongue, and so richly coconut. I couldn’t help myself as I blissfully ate bite after bite, licking my fingers to get it all.
Finally, I came back to my senses and stopped. Susan Reid (who was in a similar state of love with the other half of the bun) awoke too, and we dutifully tromped off to Weight Watchers to atone, neither of us really feeling guilty about the points, knowing we had just tasted something special, totally tropical and bewitching to the palate.
Share this recipe with friends and family!