Yellow Mangos
Written by Sarah
Once upon a time I was a huge foodie: I read, I cooked, I ate. Those that knew me then say I haven’t changed, but I long for those days. A busy life has lead me to reminisce about food, rather than enjoy it. Now, I occasionally surprise some with what seems like random food knowledge.
My friends and I love Tuesday night trivia at a local bar, Symphony 8. There was a night a few weeks back with two food questions and my past years of reading everything delicious came in handy. The two answers: kimchi (pickled cabbage) and umami (a sixth taste on the tongue that creates the desire for soy sauce on white rice or ketchup with french fries).
In my photojournalism course last summer, we had a depth of field assignment that I put off until morning of. I needed to show the exact same photo at two focal lengths, changing the point of focus. I also needed to eat after running. I had a gorgeous mango and cherries in the kitchen waiting to be eaten. I cut up mango with a cross-hatch, flipped it inside out, posed it with cherries and completed my homework assignment. Then ate lunch.
In class, my professor asked me where I learned to cut a mango like that. I told her I’d been cutting mangos since I was 8 and was introduced to them at summer camp. It was second nature but essential to not wasting any pulp.
This week, yellow mangos were on sale (2 for $3!) at Whole Foods so I grabbed a couple.
Preparing is simple: stand end where it attached to the tree, aim just less than half inch from the middle to get around the pit on either side, and score with a cross-hatch to ease the eating process. Green mangos can be flipped inside out and cubed, sliced off or eaten straight off the skin. Yellow mangos can be flipped when the skin is sturdy enough to flip but slipping a spoon along the skin, like with an avocado, is effortless.
Symphony 8: www.symphony8boston.com
Whole Foods Market: www.wholefoodsmarket.com
