I'd start urbanspooning asian restaurants in your area and looking for menus. Once you have your list of coconut wonderfulness you should begin a coconut crawl. Report back, with photos.
Skywalker, wanna a sip? teacake is right, Asian restaurants and Thai specifically for coconut thingies are a good bet.
I am working my way through the explosion of asian (mostly Taiwanese) dessert places my city has to offer. I try and eat something different every time and I have yet to be anything but happy. SOME DELIGHTS: http://www.dessertstory.co/products/
I'm not a big fan of red bean desserts, and not a fan of Western desserts at all, but... hmm... those look yummy!
Beans and me have always been friends But I particularly like asian jellies because they are so unsweet. I had a great one at a street festival for new years.. flat tan beans, coconut and leaf jellies, pieces of mango with coconut milk poured over it all. And then a big pile of crushed ice. Just perfection. Give me that over cake any day. I like red bean filling in buns.
I'm friends with beans, too. Especially broad beans, which I can eat a bowl each day and not have enough (shame they're available only in certain time of the year and even more shame I can't get fresh broad beans anywhere in Hong Kong ), but red bean desserts are not on the top of my list. I'll take mango / coconut based thing anytime Or any other fruity craziness Hmm... where's the nearest dessert shop? I still have some of my lunch break left
Made these for dinner. Simple cold rice paper rolls. They have grated carrot, shredded lettuce, mung bean sprouts and thai basil leaves in them. Dipping sauce is lime juice, fish sauce, touch of soy sauce and diced fresh chillies. You can of course leave out the fish sauce though I love that stuff Buy yourself some of the rice papers and this is a super quick and versatile vegetarian meal since you can put anything you like in it. If you can't get thai basil coriander is great too, or chillies or shredded peppers or.. it's just nice to have one strong flavor tying it all together.
But.. but.. How do you eat mexican? I never met a bean I didn't like. Currently super friendly with turtle beans.
^There are tons of mexican dishes without beans, girl! They're like little egg boobs! I love coconut. J, you should be able to find So Delicious brand coconut ice cream in the supermarket near the nondairy ice creams. So Delicious also makes the most amazing nondairy coconut based eggnog -- I am a fan of eggnog, but both my sisters are vegan so we were getting Silk Soy nog for years, which is fine, but not great. So Delicious, though, is the best eggnog I've ever had!
I don't eat Mexican. It's probably my least favourite quisine. Beans, stodge and cheese. Cheese, stodge and beans. Stodge, cheese and beans. Great...
I live in England - I don't even think there are any Taco Bells. I've never tried them anyway. I've eaten from several well regarded Mexican restaurants over the years and not found anything remotely edible in any of them. For example, quesadillas. It could of course, be that all the places I've tried are crap, but that doesn't change the fact that there's an awful lot of beans in Mexican cuisine...
^I think you're getting a very limited sample of Mexican cuisine, which is pretty diverse and as often bean-free as bean-full! I honestly don't think I ate beans once the entire time I studied in Mexico! I'm careful with beans because I can only eat a few variaties without getting bloated and nauseated -- I love vegetarian chili, for example, but only make it a couple times a year for this reason.
A lot of the mexican (or tex mexican) I had in CA was over salty, over cheesy and definitely over stodgy. But I had great stuff too, huge fresh burritos full of vegies and pico de gallo and the meat or beans was perfect and not some congealed lump. So I know what relayer is talking about, I haven't been in the UK in a long time but I'd be very surprised if you could get good mexican. It's easy to make yourself though and to avoid the whole taco bell style slop. I would say 4 out of 5 meals I ate during my upbringing contained beans, mostly garbanzo. I can't really get excited about garbanzos for that reason though I do love crushing them to death with garlic and lemon..