Hello Warm Weather and all the Juicy Sweetness you bring with!

What I love about the warm weather season, aside from longer days, minimal clothing, and outside frolicking, is the [nature's] candy it bears. I'm delighted to say that we are finally starting to enter the prime time of most fruit. Currently in abundance around town appears to be these golden nuggets: Haitian mangos!


There's all types of mangoes out there. These are particularly delish as their dark flesh tends to be a tad more flavor-intense as well as smoother [less fibery] than the red-green [Tommy Atkins et al] variety.

I get mine in NYC's Chinatown-- high turnover typically is better quality and cheaper. I paid about $1/mid-sized one.


So here's the mango how-to..

Pick mangoes with deep-colored skin-- because the skin is thin, to some extent, it reflects the flesh; the darker the flesh, the more intense the flavor, just like papayas. The skin should feel smooth and not be wrinkled. Ever so lightly [otherwise vendors get angry], give the mangoes a squeeze-- like avocados, you want it to give ever so slightly.


To prepare:
Wash/rinse the mango before cutting. Then stand it up, holding just the stem bit and cut the skin off the sides as such..


Then just run your knife horizontally to get the bottom bit off and do the same for the top..


Before moving onto the next step, let's review the..

Anatomy of a mango: Mangoes have a flat pit in their middle that usually runs parallel to the outer shape. The idea [my idea] is to get as much flesh off the pit as possible and in as big a piece as possible.

So, once the mango is skinned, try to guess where the pit is, and on its side try to cut as close to the surface of the pit as possible..


The pit is flat, so do it for both sides. You can see I hit the pit [the white part of the middle piece].


Then, after getting the two fat pieces of flesh, it's time to get as much of the rest of the flesh off the pit. Like meat closest to the bone, the remaining mango flesh will be ultra-tender-- the best part in my opinion..


I like to eat my mango in slivers, so that's how I cut it. And you can be all fancy and fan it but whatever suits your palatable fancy..


Enjoy!


And Happy Healthy Juicy Mango Eating!