coconut milk
Colonial copra plantations in the Philippines and across the Pacific converted a subsistence crop into an extractive commodity, and the economic consequences of that conversion are still present in the form of land dispossession and mono-crop dependence.
Cultural layer
Bangkok: Recipes and Stories from the Heart of Thailand (Leela Punyaratabandhu, 2017)
Me'a Kai: The Food and Flavours of the South Pacific (Robert Oliver, 2010)
Route
PendingThe routes are written. They are not yet mapped.
This entry's cultural layer already names where it came from and how it moved. What it does not yet carry is that movement as structure: ordered waypoints with real coordinates, and a mechanism on each leg. Until it does, the layer stays an empty slot rather than a drawn line, because a map built from prose would be a guess with a projection under it.
1 of 404 entries carries a mapped route · nutmeg is the prototype
- Waypoints
Ordered places, each with its kind
- Coordinates
Real positions, with the gazetteer they came from
- Segments
From, to, and the mechanism that moved it
- Confidence
Documented, attributed or contested
- Summary
What the route argues, in a sentence
Names · co-equal, marked by how each one travelled
FoodwayPresent as a living food culture.
No names recorded.
Connections
40 bonds · 40 sourcedSolkadhi: kokum and coconut.
Palusami and luau: taro leaf baked in coconut cream.
Sak sak: sago dumplings in coconut cream.
Thai curry.
Kaya and kuih.
Thai curry and tom yum.
Rice and peas, the Sunday dish.
Laksa.
Gulai nangka, young jackfruit curry.
Score unexamined
Thai curry base.
Capsaicin is lipophilic and works on the TRPV1 receptor, so the usual account is that fat dissolves it away. That account is only partly right: controlled comparisons find full-fat milk no better than fat-free, and casein and whey cut the burn with no fat present at all. Fat, protein and temperature each contribute. What coconut milk does is carry the capsaicin through the dish rather than simply quench it, which is why heat in a curry spreads and lingers instead of spiking.
Studies on the reduction of capsaicin oral burn by dairy and plant proteins (Journal of Food Science and Food Quality and Preference, accessed 2026-09-13)
Coconut rice.
South Indian mango curry.
South Indian curries.
Score unexamined
Caribbean curries and rundown.
Dende and leite de coco are the base of moqueca baiana.
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Score unexamined
Bumbu spice-paste thickener.
Jugo and batido de guanabana.
Score unexamined
Pacific tropical.
Score unexamined
Fried tempeh in the sambal goreng gravy.
Score unexamined
Laksa and rojak.
Score unexamined
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Soaked garri with coconut, a snack.
Nigerian food research
Score unexamined
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Lemon myrtle in coconut cream.
Bonds are drawn from culinary literature and origin-tradition references, tiered by source. Origin means a reference from the place.
Studio Culinar-E, "coconut milk", Pantry Archive, Studio Monk-E, 2026. https://studioculinar-e.com/archive/coconut-milk
/archive/coconut-milk
Bonds are tiered by source, origin-tradition references first.