Food: Mangoes

The best piece of advice I can give a traveler planning a trip to a tropical country is if at all possible, make sure your trip is during mango season. This typically falls just before the rainy season and mangoes are so abundant they are literally rotting on the ground. They come as small as the size of a small orange, and some are larger than a grapefruit. If you are unfamiliar with eating them they can be a bit messy at first, but well worth it.

Mango trees provide shade to villagers in Uganda. 

Mangoes are native to India and Southeast Asia. There are a myriad of varieties and trees can be 120+ ft tall, or short stout trees providing shade.  Cultivars have the colors of yellow, orange, red or green, and contain a single flat, oblong pit that is often fibrous on the surface. Don't be fooled by attempting to judge the ripeness of mango by the color as they can often be unrelated. The pulp can range from stringy to extremely tender. For stringy mangoes you can't always be carrying floss, so people often use a handkerchief to pull the pulp out from between teeth.

Nice mango cross-section. 

Where I'm from we only import mangoes, so I'd only seen maybe two or three varieties before moving to the tropics. In fact, the variety "Tommy Atkins" is the most imported variety not due to it's taste, rather it's long shelf life and resistance to picking up bruises during shipping. It's widely acknowledged to be an "average" variety when judged on the merits of its taste, but the other factors have a greater influence on which mangoes reach supermarkets in the US and UK (Tommy Atkins comprise 80% of mango imports in the US and UK). Needless to say, I was astounded when I first encountered mangoes in the tropics. There were varieties that were sweet, creamy, tart; some were even spicy. Mango trees are ubiquitous in most tropical countries and readily available during the few months when they are ripe. As mentioned earlier, they literally rot on the ground as not even the most ardent mango consumer can keep up with the biggest trees.

Bats, birds and other animals also share the taste for mangoes. Although they are best when ripened on the tree, they can be picked (usually by throwing stones or using a long stick with a v-shaped notch on the end) and ripened off the tree. There are also worms that love to eat mangoes and people will often complain when a tree is infested. In Jamaica they told me not to mind and that's why it's always best to "eat mangoes at night". However, not everyone likes to eat mangoes at night, which leads to a booming market for mangoes, especially the varieties that are sweet, tender, and worm-free.

Mangoes can be eaten with out a knife, something that can't be said for other delicious tropical fruits like the pineapple and jackfruit. If you're going to get down and dirty, you've still gotta be careful to avoid the sap from the tree; mangoes belong to the same family as poison ivy. Like poison ivy (and poison oak) mangoes contain urushiol, an oily allergen that causes the painful reaction that you've hopefully never experienced first hand. Some mangoes have an entirely different method for consumption; some are good to pound in your fist and soften, then open a small patch of skin to drink like a juice.

One of the most interesting things with mangoes it the way it sharply defines the lower-income class. I've observed that the lower-income class never purchases mangoes and find it extravagant to buy something that is available for free. I assume most of you would reach for your wallet if I asked you if you'd like a free stringy mango that doesn't have much taste, or pay 50 cents and have a sweet and tender mango. I am ashamed to say it, but I am a bit of a mango snob these days. I wouldn't consider myself a spendthrift but as a result of not having a mango tree in my yard and having some years of mango experience, I want to make sure I'm getting a delicious mango and find that most yard varieties are too stringy. Even still, a stringy mango can still make some delicious mango juice!