So I see a new item at my local grocery store last week: a box of wee lil’ mangoes, all buttery yellow instead of green/red as I usually see them. They’re Ataulfo mangoes, a variety that, until recently, has not been a big import in the U.S.
Curious, I take a box home.
Holy crap.
HOLY CRAP, they’re good.
They have a smaller seed, to begin with, so they’re easier to “butcher” than a regular mango. So that’s nice.
Just a little unripe, they have that wonderful mango spiciness and slight bitterness.
Fully ripened, when they are uniformly yellow and maybe a tiny bit wrinkled, they are amazing. They’re sweet, smooth, and largely nonfibrous (although I do tend to get a few fibers between my teeth as I try to efficiently clean off the core). They have a honeylike tinge, with just a hint of spiciness in the background. They’re almost like a fully-ripened August peach that has been infused with tupelo honey.
Highly, highly recommended. My wife was a dear and got me a second box today, to hold me over while she’s out of town.
The difference between yellow mangoes and the other varieties is huge. IMO, culinarily speaking they’re almost different fruit. And yellow mangoes are pretty much the nicest tasting fruit on the planet. Right now I’m living somewhere they grow wild, and it’s absolute bliss. I cut them hedgehog-style and slurp down their sensational juices - or go to my favorite juice shop and get a mango smoothie. Mmmmangoes.
I just learned that they actually have urushiol in the peel - the same chemical that causes contact dermatitis from poison ivy (they’re in the same family). Ever have any problems with it?
Yeah, I cut down each side of the seed, clean the center up with my teeth, then cut each half hedgehog style. Heaven.
Screw Kirk Cameron’s banana. If he’d have used a yellow mango, I’d have agreed.
“How could the taste of heaven, starlight and rainbows, that has the addictive qualities of crack, not have been created specifically for us by a benign god? Silly scientists.”
thelurkinghorror definitely try a soft juicy yellow one. Like I say, it’s essentially a different fruit.
There’s also mangosteen. No relation to mango at all, doesn’t look remotely similar, but when fully ripe the pulp tastes like the sweet divinity of a yellow mango, but with an extra tartness overlaid that is (possibly) even nicer. It’s really difficult to get one ripe enough, or even to know when one is ripe if you do get one, as the skin is like red shoe leather. The last one I bought wasn’t ready to eat but I had no way of telling. But when they’re good… oh yeah.
I know. That’s why you convinced me. Mangosteen tops my list of “fruits that look photoshopped” when part of the peel is removed. I’ll have to have one of those too.
