man-go

mango: the oblong, sweet fruit of a tropical tree, Mangifera indica, of the cashew family, eaten ripe, or preserved or pickled.

Andrew brought a mango home from work the other night, I was thrilled! I had not had a mango since Honduras, where I had my first mango. I'm sure I had mango before, definitely mango flavored this and that, but nothing like what I had experienced last summer. We shared the fruit for dinner tonight. Though I'm sure this particular mango was not grown in Central America, it could not have tasted more like Honduras. Most of the mangoes I ate in Honduras were gifts. If people liked us when we came to their village, they gave us fruit as gifts. Sometimes bread or coffee, even soda or topeillos (not sure how that is spelled, but it is like a popsicle) if they owned a poparilla (again with the spelling, this is like a small general store). Mangoes were popular though, and so very delicious. There was a large mango tree on the compound where I lived. On days off, it was the popular place to read a book. The branches were too high to reach, but it bore mangoes like any other mango tree. Every once in a while a mango would fall out of the tree, too large and ripe for it to hang from the branches. A peaceful chapter in my book would be suddenly interrupted by a large splat of an over-ripe mango. The fallen mangoes were never salvaged, and I was never lucky enough for one to land in my lap, though many came close. As soon as the mango hit the stone beneath the tree it was broken and invaded by ants and other insects.

If you have not had the pleasure of eating a fresh ripe mango, I urge you to get in your car, find a market that carries mangoes and eat one, after paying for it of course.