Mango-bliss – how to eat a mango the right way!

Have you ever had an experience where you felt like you have transcended and gone to heaven even as you know you are still on this earthly plane?  For me, eating a mango the right way creates such an experience – one of pure bliss.

 

What is a mango? I am not sure where the name came from, but it is said in Jamaica that when a mango falls from a tree “man go” quick-quick to pick it up!   A mango is a sweet tropical fruit that comes in many sizes, shapes and varieties – each with its own unique taste, texture and scent. Many hours are spent in the tropics debating the merits of this type of mango over that.  What is indisputable is that once you have eaten a mango the right way, you will have experienced nirvana.

 

My first blissful mango-eating experience was when I was a little baby, perhaps 11 or 12 months old.  My mummy placed me stark naked in a tub with a HUGE ripe mango!   You could see from the photo that I was in total heaven!  I have had many mango-bliss experiences since then, albeit fully clothed, or at least in a bikini.  The secret to the bliss is in engaging all of your senses – sight, smell, taste, touch and even sound!

 

The first sense to engage is sight.  You want to look at the mango, whether it is nestled lovingly in the tree or in the grocery or market.   Shiny green skin tells you the mango is young, and not yet ready.  Most mangoes ripen to a beautiful yellow/orange/red although there are some that remain a light green with a little yellow.

 

What really tells you that the mango is ready to be experienced is the scent.  Go no further if the mango has no scent.  If you have to place your nose ON the mango, in the mango, and still get little or no scent then it’s not ripe.  A ripe mango wafts its sweet scent to you from inches or centimeters, even feet or metres away.

 

The final step before deciding whether this has the potential to be a blissful mango eating experience is to touch the mango – or as we say in Jamaica “feel up feel up” the mango.  Is it firm?  But NOT tough.  If you have the urge to knock it, it’s too hard.  Are there soft spots?  That’s a no-no.  You want the mango to be firm, but softly so, all around.

 

So you now have a sweet smelling, red/orange/yellow, firm mango.  Ah the moment!  By now your taste buds are salivating.  This is the moment when you discard the knife, forget that you are wearing a white shirt (mango juice stains), ignore all the manners your mother ever taught you and start to TASTE!

 

Turn the mango bottom up for this is the part of the fruit that hung lowest on the tree, and where the sweetness congregates.   Place your teeth on the peak and gently bite into the skin..    Hold the bite while you feel the flesh on your lips and tongue and the juice oozing up into your mouth.  Do not rip the skin off.  Gently, gently slide the strip of skin down the mango.  Now look at the bright saffron yellow flesh!  Oh – you are about to enter heaven!  And take a bite.  Not a chomp – just gently lay your teeth and lips on the mango and draw the flesh into your mouth.  Your eyes will automatically roll to heaven and you will involuntarily emit a sigh.

 

Go with whatever sounds bubble up from within you –slurps, lip smacks, yum yum.  That’s part of the bliss.

 

Continue eating your mango, tearing one strip at a time, stopping to look and inhale the scent between each bite.  And as the juice traces down your arms, lick from elbow to wrist and each of your fingers! You don’t want to waste a drop.

 

Now to the grand finale!  All skin gone (some of us eat the skin too), the flesh having been imbibed, you now attack the seed.  Your aim is to suck the seed dry, till there is no more flavour or colour.  This is usually where the loudest noises are made, as you build to a crescendo of mango eating delight!  When the seed is as dry as a dinosaur’s bone, the only task left is to find a tap to wash off your mouth, face, hands, and arms.

 

And with a big “Ahhhhh” …. you are done  …. until the next mango-bliss!