Tuesday July 11, 2006

Mangoes

mango

Mkh doesn’t like the Mango Festival, and I can’t say I blame him (I’ve been to Fairchild twice recently, and I’m over it). The fruit itself, tho? Sign me up.

Uniquely tropical, mangoes come in a multitude of varieties; a Bahamian woman I used to know told me about varieties of mangoes that are completely different from the fruit we think of; some that are small and soft, some that are green even when ripe, and a multitude of flavors (the wikipedia article lists 35 species). There’s the unbelievably fleshy texture. The intoxicating smell. The fact that the skin is poisonous. Mangoes are amazing, and they elicit a different type of affection then most other fruit. Most supermarkets only seem to sell the one “regular” variety, so maybe I should have checked out the mango festival, after all.

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  1. mkh    Tue Jul 11, 12:11 PM #  

    I just wish mangos would ripen in the winter, not in the hottest months of the year. Man, I could so easily gorge myself on that delectable sweetness…

    At th efestival I did try green mango for the first time. They serve it like a shot of tequila: a slice of green flesh with a squeeze of lime and a liberal application of salt. It’s completely different, but really tasty.



  2. Tere    Tue Jul 11, 12:26 PM #  

    I aim to keep a tree of each variety when I finally buy a house. And then I can give them away to anyone who asks (after I’ve made myself sick eating them).

    That’s the kicker – I eat so many each season that I get physically ill. And yet I run back for more every single year. Masochism can be so wonderful sometimes.



  3. Val Prieto    Wed Jul 12, 01:56 PM #  

    My parents neighbor used to have this mango tree that fruited these huge mangoes. They were football sized and never turned red, they ripened only to yellow. I have never had better tasting or sweeter mangos than those.



  4. Tere    Wed Jul 12, 02:26 PM #  

    That kind of mango (I don’t know the name) is absolutely amazing.



  5. fin    Thu Jul 13, 03:21 PM #  

    They give me a rash.



  6. alesh    Thu Jul 13, 06:28 PM #  

    Is it the whole thing, or just the skin, F?

    Had some mango last night… yum.



  7. silvia    Thu Jul 13, 10:04 PM #  

    yummm. Mangoes.
    tasty and useful

    A gum can be tapped from the stems of mango trees which used to be sold in Indian bazaars as a substitute for gum Arabic.



  8. Val Prieto    Fri Jul 14, 09:21 AM #  

    Mangoes are toxic to some people as they have a high level of iodine.



  9. silvia    Fri Jul 14, 11:16 AM #  

    mangoes are in the same family (Anacardiaceae) as poison ivy :D
    they both contain Urushiol.



  10. alesh    Fri Jul 14, 11:52 AM #  

    “Persons showing an allergic reaction after handling a mango can usually enjoy the fruit if someone else first removes the skin.” – wikipedier

    Hence my question. I love the mango resin, though.

    BTW, Silvia figured out how to bold, italic, link, and insert pictures. Let’s see everyone else get with the program.



  11. Manola Blablablanik    Fri Jul 14, 12:21 PM #  

    what are you talking about, alesh? :-)



  12. Ash    Thu Jul 27, 02:52 PM #  

    I LOVE mangoes but the other day I woke up with an itchy rash under my eye and blisters all around my ring finger. I’ve been researching poison oak and ivy even though I haven’t been any where near the stuff and found out that mangoe skin has a small amount of the same oil that poison oak and ivy and poison sumac has. For people who are very allergic to urushiol (the oil)
    they should keep away from these things and there was a list of other things, pistachio shells were another one. I guess I must have gotten the oil on my hands when cutting up a mango and then rubbed my eye. I hope I don’t have to quit eating them all together! Oh yeah, my lips feel unbelievably chapped too! :o(