Mango Madness

– by Passionfruit

Legend says that Buddha meditated under the cool shade of a mango tree.

Buddha’s no dummy. When it’s mango season the temps are soaring!

It all started with our friend and driver, Michael (he works for the Swoosh). He gifted us 2 boxes of mangos this season from his family’s farm near Tainan (south of us about an hour).

That’s 24 mangos!

24 mangoes that will ripen in symphony. And yes, just about all fruit comes in this fish-netted foam koozie for a pimped out journey. Taiwan takes fruit seriously, but it does seem a bit wasteful as I don’t think these are recyclable. I’ve saved some wondering what to do with them… any ideas?

We begin our mango a day diet

And also freezing one a day for future smoothie making. I finally learned how to peel one like a pro. I’m embarrassed to say I used to peel them with a carrot peeler which is amateur hour. Here’s how you really prep a mango:

Step 1: Cut the chubby cheeks off as close to the seed as a possible.

Step 2: Score the cheek fruit with a knife, invert the skin and then cut off the cubes

Step 3: Trim the skin off the core, trim mango meat from seed

Step 4: Suck remaining fruit off seed

We were down to four mangoes and feeling proud of our mango management skills…. and then Michael gifted us another box.  It was mango madness.

Mango Madness calls for Mango Pancakes


A mango for all

‘Irwin’ and ‘JinHwang’ are the two major varieties that are widely cultivated in Taiwan for exportation. Taiwan mangos are predominantly grown on hillsides 200-500 m above sea level. It’s also a common to spot a mango tree happily growing in the city… usually it’s the fallen, squashed fruit that makes one look up and go “WOW, A MANGO TREE”!


Land of fruitiness
The other fruity characters competing for attention

 FYI: The Mango tree is the national tree of Bangladesh. A basket of mangos is considered a gesture of friendship in India and I would add Taiwan as well. Xiexie, Michael! Taiwan’s national tree is the Plum and with it comes the Spring “plum rains”.

Come mid-July, it’ll turn to Passion Fruit season! Blog post on PF right here.

Enjoy your seasonal fruitiness.

With love,

pp

Pickles & Passionfruit


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2 thoughts on “Mango Madness

    1. Xiexie, Elaine. It’s a typhoon day here (which feels like a snow day in the usa) so we hunkered down and blogged our brains out today. Thanks for following. XO!

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