Summer Fruits
Posted by Rex under Life | Permalink | | Leave A Comment
Next to weather, the next best thing about the summer for me is the summer fruits. I like strolling the local farmers market and see endless display of colorful fruits. My girls just can’t get enough of strawberries, cherries, pluots and pineapple, Suzanne likes crunchy white peaches. I dig just about anything, but my favorite is probably apricots.
Several weeks ago, Mercury News’ Food & Wine ran an article about “luscious” Alphonso mangoes. These are pricey mangoes imported from India for the first time in 2 decades. The article described these supposedly kings of mangoes:
“With its fragrance of buttery vanilla shortbread cookies and flesh as sensuously smooth as the creamiest pudding…”
That sounded enticing enough for my curiosity. The mangoes are imported via flight in small quantities and only Indian shops carry them. So I took the girls and stopped by a local Indian bakery in Sunnyvale that following weekend. The proprietor was pushing me to buy the whole case. We bought 3 to try; and at $4 for each tiny one, they were pricey alright.
That night, we tried them. First, I wasn’t happy that 2 of the 3 turned out bad. They do definitely has a distinctly pungent taste and smell but it isn’t nearly as exotic as the article made them out to be. Perhaps I am less impressed because I recognized the taste right away though. I’ve had them before but just don’t remember where or when. I’m glad I got to try them but while I’m no food critic but I concluded that they are a little over-rated and a lot over-priced.
I’ll spend my $12 on champagne mangoes from Mexico next time!
Some Indian classmates and I (all taking a Spanish class!) once debated about the best mangoes. They rooted for the Alphonsos from India, and I for the ok-rong from Thailand. But neither were imported into the US so we couldn’t do a taste test. I don’t know if the mangoes you had when you were growing up in Vietnam are like the mangoes I had when I grew up in Thailand; they probably be are.
So I’m glad you tasted the Alphonsos here for me! I’ll take your word that they’re a little over-rated. Even champagne mangoes that are available here: I don’t think they compare with the mangoes in Thailand.
Like you, I’ll stick to apricots. Preferably blenheims. Looks ugly, tastes marvellous.
Too bad, my mom wasn’t here to taste the alphonso with me, she’ll definitely know whether they were available in Vietnam. As a kid, I do remember our family favored “Soai Cat” (literal translation means sand mangoes). I figured they’re called that because the skin are speckled with tiny sand-like dots. They are one of the more expensive but bigger mangoes and are very juicy and sweet.
All this reminiscing about mangoes make me miss my grandparents’ countryside place in Vietnam. They have a huge (to a toddler then anyway) yard with all sorts of fruit trees. I’d wander and pretend it was a jungle– it was always a treat visiting them on lunar new year.
Too bad you did not like the alphonsos – the better one’s are gone I’m sure. I had one – $4 is too much, but it brought back old memories along with the taste..:)
There are better mangoes in India – hopefully they’ll get imported soon and the price will be cheaper. But plz plz do not compare these with mexican mangoes….geez…
Just wandered into your site on a late night net-wandering spree…:)
Our nine-month old boy Tuheen has just decided to try climbing out of the crib at 3.00 am…gotta go..:)
Hope you are yahooing well..:)
Shantanu, congrats on the baby man… Didn’t know.
Dude, you’re taking this mango business way too seriously. Sorry! 😉