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Published: June 30th 2010
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Me on my doorstep
These smaller beauties are the SUCKING mangoes as I like to call them. See text This will be a relatively short blog because I have to get back to eating mangoes!
Put simply - I love the mango season in India (in fact I love a lot of fruit seasons but mangos are special).
OK - so I am currently in Orissa - and I suppose the actual mango season varies slightly from place to place. But here in about the middle to late May and extending right through to at least middle to late July is MANGO season. The peak is in the first half of June.
Indians call the mango “the king of fruit”. It has been grown in India since times immemorial and has also been described as the "Food of the Gods" in the sacred Hindu texts known as the Vedas.
Mango is grown almost in all parts of India, except the hilly areas and there are more than 100 varieties in a range of colors, sizes, and shapes. Sizes range from 10 to 25 cm in length and 7 to 12 cm in width. A single mango can be as heavy as 2.5 kg. They can be green, yellow, red, and even various combinations of all these
Bhubaneswar road side mangoes
Everywhere you look in June - MANGOES! colors.
The most popular varities include 'Alphonso' (also called 'Hapoos'), 'Amrapali', 'Bangalora', 'Banganapalli' (also known as 'Benishaan'), 'Bombay', 'Bombay Green', 'Chausa', 'Chinna Rasalu', 'Dashaheri' ('Daseri'), 'Fazli', 'Fernandian', 'Gulabkhas', 'Himayath' (a.k.a. 'Imam Pasand'), 'Himsagar', 'Jehangir', 'Kesar', 'Kishen Bhog', 'Lalbaug', 'Langda' ('Langra'), 'Mallika', 'Mankurad', 'Mulgoa', 'Neelam', 'Pairi', 'Pedda Rasalu', 'Rajapuri', 'Safeda', 'Suvarnarekha', 'Totapuri', 'Vanraj' and 'Zardalu'.
Mangoes at the height of the season (and depending on quality and variety) can be as cheap as Rs 15 a kilo (yes that’s right - less than 30 cents Australian! Best quality can be as expensive (!!!) as Rs 40 (about Aust $1) locally but the Alphonso which comes from Maharashtra mainly might be a lot more (gee I dunno - maybe as much as Rs 60????).
A point of order though - I have an Indian friend (Sameer) living in Australia who alerted me to the Aphonso as “the best mango in the world”. And then my friend Rajendra visited Bhubaneswar from Mumbai and brought me a dozen choice Alhphonsos. They were great! HOWEVER…. I would still like to put in a plug for the Australian Bowen Mango as the best mango in the world (Sameer - just wait until Dec/Jan
and see what I mean!).
Now there is this whole range of what I call “sucking Mangoes” for lack of a better term and these are just delightful. They tend to be the smaller ones and when you buy them they are quite soft. You pulp them a little in your hand - bite off the top and suck away - and the whole of the mushy flesh just flows through that little hole into your mouth as you squeeze it. Bliss! These are SO sweet and gorgeous.
My trick is to have a supply of these (and others) in the fridge and just take them out as ‘coldies’ when I feel like a mango (yeah - like when do you NOT feel like a mango?!!).
Caution though - if you eat too many expect your digestive system to respond appropriately! Actually, I tend to only eat a couple a day to be honest.
But apart from all that - I just eat the things! OK - back to my daily intake!
References:
http://www.iloveindia.com/national-symbols/national-fruit.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonso_(mango)
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Sally
non-member comment
Mango Mania
mmmmm the sucking mangoes........ very descriptive.