I did some impulse buying at the supermarket.

[randomness]

I went in for ice cream and bought blackberries (because they were on sale) and mangos (because I like Ataulfo or champagne mangos). If the only mangos you've had have been Tommy Atkins mangos, you owe it to yourself to try an Ataulfo.

As Corey Mintz of the Toronto Star put it:

Tasting an Ataulfo mango for the first time often elicits the response, "That's a mango? What is that crap I've been getting from the grocery store?"

The answer is Tommy Atkins, that green-and-red monstrosity polluting market shelves like off-season Christmas fruit cake. Owing to its durability, disease-resistance and long shelf life, the Tommy Atkins is the most common mango sold in regions like ours, where sturdiness during long-distance importation is a huge concern for retailers. Unfortunately, the Tommy Atkins is also tart and fibrous, containing a quagmire of stringy flesh determined to embed itself in our teeth.

...

Let's work together to make the Ataulfo the Number 1 selling mango and relegate the Tommy Atkins to history's unmarked grave of discarded lies.

Impulse buying fruit is better than a lot of other things I could be buying on impulse.

Still can't find the miniature mangos that look like baby Ataulfos here, though

Comments

[eac.livejournal.com]

Huh. This is helpful to know.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

ok, how do you eat them? i'm used to slicing around the pit (like an avocado) and then cutting a grid into each half of the mango, then pressing the skin convex-to-concave and eating the chunks. i ph33r new fruits, though, so any advice would be welcome (esp if these are presently available :)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I won't claim any expert technique, but I pretty much do a variation on what you do:

--slice the two sides off
--cut grids into the flesh, but not the skin
--slice off the two remaining narrow bits of peel
--cut chunks into the flesh of these bits, but not the skin
--press skin convex-to-concave on the two sides, eat chunks
--bend the other two bits like orange segments, eat
--pick up the remaining piece with the pit in it, either by the remaining bits of skin on the ends, or peeling them off first
--eat the remaining flesh off the pit.

It's not particularly graceful but it does get everything edible off the fruit. Also, it's a lot longer to write than to do.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Impulse buying fruit is better than a lot of other things I could be buying on impulse.


This is my rationale for impulse buying fruit.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I guess I never knew non-stringy mangoes existed. I've never had the other kind. Now I want to try one.

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

In Nicaragua mangoes grow wild all over the place. The accepted method of eating is to wait until they're ripe enough to be soft, then peel off part of the skin, then just start eating. As you exhaust that under skin bit, you keep peeling off more until eventually you're down to the pit. There are discarded mango pits on the street all over the place. I never managed to do this gracefully, so I have no idea how they do it without ending up covered in mango juice, but they also drink soda out of plastic bags without spilling it, which is even more impressive.