This year the Mango season started rather late for us – just yesterday. Till we get to eat Mangoes chosen by our Mango boys in Bangalore, it never feels like the season has started. Last year they had sent the mangoes to us in Chennai and we met them in Bangalore too – The Mango boys are back!. This year they couldn’t send any in May because we were travelling for ShikshaDaan in U.P and Bihar. We got back on June 1st and Ilayaraja and I kept trying different courier companies and parcel service companies to see if any of them would bring the Mangoes over from Bangalore to Gurgaon at a reasonable cost. None of them would. Then Anu came over to Gurgaon on her way to J&K – I started the conversation by saying, you could have informed me earlier and Vijay or Ilayaraja would have dropped off a few mangoes at your place :):). Rather rude of me, but Anu knows how much I dig these Mangoes. She had posted a few pics on FB when the Mango boys had delivered some Mangoes to her place and I had immediately commented saying I was missing them.
We did buy some Banganapallis and Langdas from the store in our condo complex but they neither smelt like Mangoes nor tasted good. We had been to the famed Malihabad orchards near Lucknow in May and they told us the Mangoes there would be ready only by June 15th. So we didn’t get to eat many Mangoes at all till the third week of June. Then the Dussehris made an appearance and they are really nice and tasty – they smell like mangoes and are sweet.
On 26th June, CG Krishnan called saying he was coming to Gurgaon for work and Krishnan made the mistake of letting me know …. I immediately asked if he could bring a few mangoes with him as hand baggage to which he readily agreed. I immediately called Ilayaraja and told him to deliver just a couple of kilos of Mangoes to CGK because he would be carrying it on the flight as hand luggage. Vijay and Ilayaraja went over to CGK’s place and gave him about 3 kilos of Mangoes, all of them yet to ripen. Even as I opened the bag the awesome fragrance of Mangoes filled the kitchen and yesterday the one Malgoa that they had packed ripened. It was so wonderful to bite into it and savour the taste. Mango is the King of fruits and rightfully so. Nothing beats the taste of a ripe mango that hasn’t been ripened using chemicals.
Today two of the “Mallika” mangoes ripened and we have gobbled them up. Waiting for the Banganapalli’s to ripen next. The Banganapallis are called “Safeda” in the north and they are unfortunately tasteless :(.
So the way to eat Mangoes is to put the fully ripened mangoes into a bucket of water for an hour or so. They lose their heat. If you want to know how hot they are, try ripening the mangoes at home – when you pick up the ripe mango, they are actually hot to the touch. I don’t eat the skin … when I was younger I would eat the skin, but even with organic mangoes am not sure if I should, so I avoid eating the skin.
Enjoy a good Mango season folks – when you buy, smell them at the top and they should smell like a Mango :). Next year we are either driving down to Bangalore or finding a way to get Ilayaraja and Vijay to send us the Mangoes. Missed them so much this year, but just thrilled that we atleast got to eat a few from their stall. Thank you Mango boys – you guys are indeed special, its almost as if the Mangoes you give us are sweeter because of all the love you shower on us. No orchard can do that, so no other Mangoes would do for us. God bless you !