In Feasts for All Seasons (Roy Andries de Groot–a fantastic cookbook), it is suggested that you pick a mango with unblemished skin, gently moosh it all around until you have a sack full of juice, you pluck off the stem thingy, and suck it all out, leaving the baggy skin around the pit. You have to be careful, of course, that it doesn’t explode in a shower of mango juice and pulp. I’ve not tried it, but I’ve got two fine plump specimens, and I’m going to give it a go in the morning.
Get a sharp knife. Score the skin from top to bottom in four places for softer fruit, six for firmer fruit. Peel. Eat soft stuff off the peel. Cut in pieces off the seed. Use your teeth to grunge off remainder on the seed. (Optional). If you use the option, refer to sailor.
Already spoke my piece on how. Which ? I have a couple varieties on my property, and in my travels have twigged them in Caribbean, Central & So.America, all around Pacific… hands down,IMHO, the Philippine “carabao” variety (one of some 7 different varities there alone) is the best.
Much better than the vaunted Hawaiian mangoes; better than the giant, teardrop shaped Cambodian ones, better than the reddish “apple mango” varieties from caribbean, etc… once you slurp them up, the rest taste funny and are a bit stringy. Point avery0.
Recipe ? besides just eating 'em…
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green mango, diced thin mixed in with ceviche (cut back on the lime juice)
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Shrimp, water, lotsa sliced green mangoes, ginger, salt, pepper, hot pepper, couple slices tomato, onion, maybe a leafy green; boil… voila, the mango version of Philippine tamarind soup called “sinigang”.
Bon appetit…
All of you, except Averye0, and Jorge are wrong. You aren’t eating a mango unless it’s either: on a beach in the Philippines, or it’s a Carabao variety ;). Of course each region thinks their mangoes are the best, but well, to each his own. But, all of my relatives from the Philippines say the carabao top any of the mangoes they’ve tried (it’s a brilliant yellow when ripe, IIRC).
Mangoes are related to poison oak and ivy. In fact, i’ve read that people who squish the mangoes in their skin and then suck the pulp out can often come away with itching (if sensitive), since you draw a lot of the sap in the rind out that way. And yes, mangoes are pretty easy to sprout. I’m doing it now, and also, they basically grow like weeds in tropical countries.
Buddy, you are referring to ATAULFO mangos. But lemmee tell you something. My girlfriend is THE sweetest, juciest, most delicious, delectable and appetizing taste sensation in the world…next to Hawai’ian Haden mangos. I’m not saying Ataulfos aren’t great. They are! But fresh Hawai’ian mango, mango salsa or pickled mango? There’s none better.
http://www.a-1net.com/freshmangos/varieties.html
I love to let the juice just run down my chin! Wait! Did I tell you about Sunrise papayas or White pineapple?
Oh please, Hawaiian mangos can’t hold a flame to Philippine mangoes. ;). Even Jorge who lives in Hawaii agrees about the carabao variety.
And it’s quite obvious you’ve never had a mango grown in Guimaras in the Philippines, or you wouldn’t be claiming those Ataulfo mangoes are the best ;).
http://www.skyinet.net/~gtic/htm/mangoes.htm
[[Already spoke my piece on how. Which ?]] There are over a dozen mango varieties in Jamaica. My favorites are: East Indian and St. Julie.