Honduran Foods -- Mangos
October 6th 2009 14:48
The best thing about Honduras is the availablility of fresh fruits and vegetables, almost 365 days a year. Ahhhh, the tropics!
In Honduras the mangos usually start getting ripe around July, although Hondurans also love to eat Green Mangos. The green mangos are usually sliced and served with salt, hot pepper, lime juice, or some wild combination. These are often sold by street vendors and fruit stands, in little plastic bags. I once saw a group of street vendors gather around a five gallon bucket, mixing bottles of syrup, hot pepper sauce, and lime juice. Are they making a terrorist bomb?? No, just mixing the toppings for the green mango slices. Phwew!
Once the mangos are a little bit yellow, they are perfect for slicing and eating. At first, before they are truly ripe, they are firm and tart, sort of like an apple. Later as they become more ripe (July-August) the mangos become dark orange or red, and the flesh becomes much softer. Mangos are very juicy when they are ripe, and if you eat the fruit whole, it can be a drippy, but yummy, mess. Good for eating outside by the beach or river.
You can also eat mangos by slicing them for inside eating. They also can be pureed to make drinks (mango milkshakes, licuados, or mango daquiris) or frozen treats. You can put the puree on the stove and cook it up into mango jelly as well. You probably won't need to add any sugar to ripe mangos, because they are naturally very sweet.
Another delicious treat that a friend makes is a "high-class" version of the street vendor's green mangos. Take mangos that are starting to ripen and make a dressing of olive oil, sugar, vinegar and hot pepper sauce. It is absolutely delicious, sweet and spice and healthy all in one. You won't be able to stop eating it. Two days in the fridge makes it even better.
Mangos are a perfect example of foods growing on trees in Honduras. When they start to ripen, everyone goes crazy to see the mangos come again. Then towards August when everyone has been eating mangos for months, and there are still tons on the trees, and they are falling down and rotting everywhere, it becomes a social obligation to eat as many mangos as you can. The price drops quickly when they are all ripe. A campesina friend calls the mangos "mata-hambre" or hunger-killers. For a few months they are everywhere, and especially in the country they are free for the taking. She says that they are the perfect thing to eat and kill your hunger while you are waiting for the rice to boil. In the off-season, you just have to be patient.
That is all I have to say about mangos, except that they are a great source of anti-oxidant vitamin E. All this and good for ya too.
Mangos growing in a tree
In Honduras the mangos usually start getting ripe around July, although Hondurans also love to eat Green Mangos. The green mangos are usually sliced and served with salt, hot pepper, lime juice, or some wild combination. These are often sold by street vendors and fruit stands, in little plastic bags. I once saw a group of street vendors gather around a five gallon bucket, mixing bottles of syrup, hot pepper sauce, and lime juice. Are they making a terrorist bomb?? No, just mixing the toppings for the green mango slices. Phwew!
Once the mangos are a little bit yellow, they are perfect for slicing and eating. At first, before they are truly ripe, they are firm and tart, sort of like an apple. Later as they become more ripe (July-August) the mangos become dark orange or red, and the flesh becomes much softer. Mangos are very juicy when they are ripe, and if you eat the fruit whole, it can be a drippy, but yummy, mess. Good for eating outside by the beach or river.
You can also eat mangos by slicing them for inside eating. They also can be pureed to make drinks (mango milkshakes, licuados, or mango daquiris) or frozen treats. You can put the puree on the stove and cook it up into mango jelly as well. You probably won't need to add any sugar to ripe mangos, because they are naturally very sweet.
Another delicious treat that a friend makes is a "high-class" version of the street vendor's green mangos. Take mangos that are starting to ripen and make a dressing of olive oil, sugar, vinegar and hot pepper sauce. It is absolutely delicious, sweet and spice and healthy all in one. You won't be able to stop eating it. Two days in the fridge makes it even better.
Mangos are a perfect example of foods growing on trees in Honduras. When they start to ripen, everyone goes crazy to see the mangos come again. Then towards August when everyone has been eating mangos for months, and there are still tons on the trees, and they are falling down and rotting everywhere, it becomes a social obligation to eat as many mangos as you can. The price drops quickly when they are all ripe. A campesina friend calls the mangos "mata-hambre" or hunger-killers. For a few months they are everywhere, and especially in the country they are free for the taking. She says that they are the perfect thing to eat and kill your hunger while you are waiting for the rice to boil. In the off-season, you just have to be patient.
That is all I have to say about mangos, except that they are a great source of anti-oxidant vitamin E. All this and good for ya too.
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