Blissfully eating mangoes

By Cynthia Nelson 

Hi Everyone, Ahhhhhh mango season! Mango season is here, trees all around are in various stages — some still blossoming, others in full bloom and laden! Mango season brings up profound and significant issues, such as…what’s the best way to eat a mango? I’ve decided that the world can be divided into three types of mango eaters – there are those who squeeze and suck, those who slice and dice, and those who make a full body commitment. It all comes down to: how messy do you want to get?

The squeeze and suck – squeeze the unpeeled mango all over making is very soft. The squeezing turns the pulp to juice. Once the mango is properly softened all around, bite the tip (the opposite end of the stem), immediately the juice will be evident, put the mango to your mouth and start sucking on it. It is a matter of squeezing and sucking the juice, this way, your hands are clean and so is your mouth, there’s no mango juice lingering anywhere. Now some people do one of two things here when all the juice has been sucked out of the mango, they simply discard it while others rip the skin apart to get to the seed and suck on it before throwing it away.

The slice and dice – armed with a paring knife and a plate, the two sides of the mangoes are sliced and one of two ways of eating takes place here. First, the sliced sides, one at a time is eaten by putting the flesh side to your mouth, sinking your teeth into it and then moving the slice downward as your teeth releases the pulp from the skin. This continues with the slice being turned all around to ensure that all the pulp is removed and eaten. Attention is then turned to the seed with the surrounding pulp; the band of skin is removed by biting and peeling it back with your teeth, once removed, bite into the mango all around. Eating it this way gets your hand moistened with the juice.