Thread: Mangoes of Southwest Florida Anyone?

During January in Brazil (well at least in Sao Paulo), people have so many mangos falling from their trees that they literally force you to take some with you (and by some I mean three grocery bags full) if you stop in to visit.

The large ones are nice... less fibers and good for juicing... but the small ones with all the fibers are so sweet it's incredible. The thing is, there isn't a graceful way to eat them. You just peel the skin back and scrape the pulp from the seed with your teeth. It is really messy and funny looking. In fact they have a saying for a person who is really ugly... roughly translated it means "that person looks like a dog trying to eat a mango." First time I heard that, I wondered where they ever came up with that description, but it actually made sense at the same time.

I love me some mango, even more when there are so many that you never have to buy them. Good times.

I have heard the saying “the best way to eat a ripe mango is in the bath” I believe the saying comes from South Africa

Pakistani Honey Mangoes are my favourite. When chilled, they have the consistency of sorbet, the sweetness of nectar, and a fragrance like being immersed in a tub of mango juice. They've just come out of season, which is disappointingly short every year (no more than 2 months).

Damn. Now I want a mango.

Yum!

Originally Posted by Del1r1um

During January in Brazil (well at least in Sao Paulo), people have so many mangos falling from their trees that they literally force you to take some with you (and by some I mean three grocery bags full) if you stop in to visit.

The large ones are nice... less fibers and good for juicing... but the small ones with all the fibers are so sweet it's incredible. The thing is, there isn't a graceful way to eat them. You just peel the skin back and scrape the pulp from the seed with your teeth. It is really messy and funny looking. In fact they have a saying for a person who is really ugly... roughly translated it means "that person looks like a dog trying to eat a mango." First time I heard that, I wondered where they ever came up with that description, but it actually made sense at the same time.

I love me some mango, even more when there are so many that you never have to buy them. Good times.

If you cut the cheeks off close to the seed, the get a knife and cut into squares toward the skin but don't go through it. Then flip it inside out(hold the edge and push) the cubes are easily spooned or pared out with a knife. Then I act like a wild primitive type and dig into the meat still stuck to the seed. I use to do this at Mango Exibitions for our local tropical fruit club so folks could enjoy and not go home a mess.
Just like the picture above.

1rst Mango Tong Dom(Black Gold) Asian
2nd Nam Doc Mai also Asian
3rd Glenn Florida cultivar
4th Lancitia from their experimental station
5th seedling Named Nelly by me, biggest mango I have ever seen. Almost twice as big as the late seasoned Keitt

Amazing amount of wild life in my yard as i have almost 90 varieties of tropical fruits. Different cultivars of Lychees, longans, star fruit, annonas, black sapotes, mamey sapotes, jack fruit(those are huge) and many more, plus citrus.

We had a panther sighting this week. I did not see him, but neighbors did. Beautiful animal. I wish some of the squirells would move out, they are a pest.

Originally Posted by sinnfein

oh man, mangos are absolutely my favorite fruit, especially when they are fresh

-dan-

A man after my own heart ! its a pity we cant buy them that size over hear for a good price. I eat them everyday with my fruit intake and just love them

ian

Originally Posted by Kingfish

If you cut the cheeks off close to the seed, the get a knife and cut into squares toward the skin but don't go through it. Then flip it inside out(hold the edge and push) the cubes are easily spooned or pared out with a knife. Then I act like a wild primitive type and dig into the meat still stuck to the seed. I use to do this at Mango Exibitions for our local tropical fruit club so folks could enjoy and not go home a mess.

Ha ha, good tip... maybe I shouldn't have said that there is NO graceful way to eat them without getting messy (and I was really talking about the smallest mangoes). I should have said that there is no graceful way to eat them with some buddies from Sao Paulo without being made fun of for asking to get your mango cut up ... but even they cut up the bigger ones.

Oh, I forgot to say that of the three most common types we'd find.. the largest they called "bull's heart" (coracao de boi), the next they called "Tomy" (pronounced like Tommy - these are the kind that you probably see most often in a grocery store), and the really small ones called... well... they just called them manga.

O amigao, vamo chupar manga! In english the translation isn't pretty, but it is a welcomed sound in Brazil to those who like mango.