Yesterday I went to Safeway after work to get some food for dinner and while walking through the produce section, I noticed a sale on champagne mangos for fifty cents apiece and bought eight of them but I’m now faced with the same problem I always am when trying to eat them: just how the hell do you do it?
I can never get the husk removed from the center of the fruit and always wind up being forced to tear its flesh while standing over the kitchen sink and eating it in large bites so that I don’t lose too much of its juice.
This can’t be the easiest method and I must surely be doing something wrong so can someone else give me some pointers? I’ll continue eating them in this method if I have to because they’re that delicious but I’d really like to not eat like an australopithecine.
And, while we’re at it, feel free to recommend any mango recipes you might think I’d enjoy.
When I eat mangos, I typically cut out thin slices and eat it like I would a slice of watermelon. This method makes it easy to cut around the husk and isn’t too messy, except for the juice, but I eat over a plate.
What is normally done around here is to take a long very sharp knife (like a filet knofe) and slice the flesh (skin attached) off either side of the flat seed. You will then have two hunks of fruit with skin on the outside. Place the skin-side down and slice through the flesh in parallel lines about 1/2 inch apart without cutting the skin. Then make another set of slices at right angles to the first. You can then eat the fruit cubes off the skin with a spoon, although it is more fun, if you are outside, to just gobble them off while slobbering juice all over yourself.
We don’t often see Mangos here in the hinterlands, so it’s a real treat when Safeway ships some in.
I’m still in a quandry about the proper way to eat one, even after asking everyone I know.
S’ok though, I just buy a bunch and experiment! So far the best way has been to peel it with a paring knife, like an apple, hang over the sink and take big bites. I’ve also found it helps to have the water running 'cause yer hands are too messy and slippery to turn it on after the fact.
Insert a spoon into the cut, with the inside of the bowl facing the seed. Work the spoon all around the seed, until that half of the mango comes loose. Repeat with the other side.
Good link. That’s how they do it in Pakistan. Take a sharp knife and cut off the cheeks and then the thin sides. Then you have four fleshy peices plus the seeded piece.
Cool! I cut mangoes like they do in Pakistan. Peel then slice. It takes a bit of practice because it’s slippery.
A friend of mine would just peel and then eat. It was terribly messy, which is why she ate her mangoes in the pool. I’m not sure whether that’s odd or brilliant. Oddly brilliant?
My Mexican grandmother had mango forks. Highly useful for keeping the mango from slipping and sliding. You stab them into the stem end of the mango, then score the mango and pull the skin off. We were allowed to chomp pieces off our mangoes at that point. Messy and drippy. But I imagine you’re supposed to slice the flesh off the mango and then eat it with a fork or spoon.
Yesterday I was on the beach at Coney Island, cooling off after the Mermaid Parade with about ten thousand other people. While I was in the water, my girlfriend bought us mangoes from a vendor who was walking along the beach. She peeled them, hacked at them not too deeply about ten times, and served them on a long kebab-type stick. You just sort of had to gnaw away at it until you hit the seed. I don’t know if this is something you’d want to try in a white silk shirt right before giving a presentation. It was Australopitheciney but good.
As I was gnawing, I noticed that there was an option: other folks were getting their mangoes doused in lime juice, salt, and bright-red hot sauce. I’d like to try that next time. Roasted corn and watermelon are both great with lime and cayenne, if you’re into that type of thing. Your lip-blistering may vary.