Still life with cat
Tita was 1 year old on Cinco de Mayo. We forgot. She didn’t hold it against us since she got some tuna when we remembered.
I think I have to stop eating so many mangos. It’s an addiction. Yesterday I ate at least 5, one in a smoothie and the other 4 standing over the sink Bill Lawson style. A knife is good but the really perfect tools for mango eating are the lower scraping teeth of a human. We were made for eating mangoes, I’m convinced of it.
I’m going to start gaining back the weight I’ve lost if I don’t get a grip on the mango compulsion. They are so good though, I can’t believe that until a couple years ago I always said I didn’t like mangoes. Impossible. The flavor is sweet and perfumed and lush… I was going to take a picture of a perfect mango but this one will have to do.
all that's left
Feliz cumpleaños Tita! Such a cute picture, love the title of “Melted Cat”.
Ok, what’s the trick to buying a fresh mango? I’ve picked a few up lately that are rock hard and not fit to eat, then found one that seemed ok but it was TOO soft. Help me!!!
My best advice is not to buy them in the store but on the street. Even the ones from the vendors on the corner are better than those in the market and the very best come from the lady with a small table full in front of her house.
The Ataulfo, yellow ones, should give slightly when you push, like a perfect avocado. The Paraiso, big red/green ones, can be a little harder, about like an avocado that you would maybe use in a salad but wait for tomorrow for the guacamole. Does that help?
Yeah, you don’t want to buy them already ripe. Buy them hard; in a hot climate, they will ripen to *just-right* within a day or two. IMHO, when the Paraísos have the same kind of ‘give’ that a perfectly ripe avocado has, they’re ready to eat.
And amen to buying them from a street vendor or at your local tianguis. I bought four today, at the tianguis, and they’re in a bowl in the kitchen waiting for another day or two. Then: slurrrrrrrp.
Jonna, give the kitty girl a birthday hug from Chepo and China. Tell her Judy’s and my anniversary is the 5th! Some year we can all celebrate together…
Cristina
Mangomania, I am SO there! I, too, didn’t think I liked mangoes… thought they were too heady, too heavy. Then this March, driving around the Yucatan Peninsula, stopping to buy baggies of cut, luscious, sun-warmed fruit, I discovered that I LOVE MANGOES. Since coming home, I’ve gone through a bag a week…. some I’ve cut up quite nicely, some I’ve dismembered brutally. A plate of bananas, pineapple, tart pear, honey crisp apple and mango is just what it’s all about.
I love mango too, but am allergic to whatever is near the skin. Tingling lips and itchy eyelids were the normal for me. Then I stopped eating off the peel and the seed, now I scrape the fruit off with a spoon and gobble – two or three a day is the norm for us, but I could eat more too. They are so great!
I think the mangos in Mexico are the best. I never really thought I liked them until I was in Isla and Sue had them. I can certainly understand how you could eat 3-4 a day.