Dare I eat a mango
Before I moved to
Puerto Rico the safest way for me to eat a
mango was in the
bathtub. Generally they're very
juicy and no matter what I did I managed to make of
mess of both me and the mango. However, there are a couple of almost
safe ways to attack the
fruit.
If you have the small yellow magoes from around Mayaguez:
- Roll the mango on a flat surface that same way you would roll a lemon before extracting the juice. You've rolled enough when you can rotate the big seed inside without breaking the skin.
- Using your teeth, rip off a piece of skin at the top of the mango
- Place your mouth over the hole
- Squeeze the fruit from the bottom up, as if you were squeezing toothpaste from the bottom of the tube
- The sensation is like drinking nectar straight from heaven
If you have any of the larger varieties of mango, the
operation is less
hazardous. The type I prefer has the
colorful name of
huevos de torro, colloquially "bull's balls," probably because of its
size and
shape. Anyway, with any large,
meaty mango:
- Put the fruit lengthwise on the table and feel for the seed which should lay horizontally inside the skin about midway through the fruit
- Once you've determined where the seed is, slice the mango so that the knife just passes over the top of the seed
- Turn the mango over and repeat the process
- With each big slice you've removed cut hatch marks through the flesh just down to the skin
- Holding the piece flesh side up, press your thumb on the skin side underneath as if you were going to turn the piece inside out
- Up will pop many bite-sized pieces of flesh, which you can cut out to put into a fruit salad or whatever
You can mash the pieces and add to an
ice cream recipe; make a
mango pie just as you would a
peach pie; put in a
blender with
milk and a little
sugar for a
refresco. Mangoes are always messy, but some are messier than others.