So. Mangos.
I bought 2 mangos, as you can see. The mango on the right is the 'regular' mango and the one on the left is the 'sweet' mango, also known as the 'olongapo' mango.
I was told how to cut a mango by a friend of mine who said to cut the mango lenthwise along the pit. Then, take a real big spoon and sort of dig in the mango and run it along the stone. Then, the fleshy, fruity part of the mango should easily lift away from the pit. Then, cut the mango fruit into squares while still in the skin and then just cut the skin away. You should be left with delicious squared pieces of mango! Sounds simple, yes? No.
Let's start with the regular mango.
Already, it is a disaster. The fruit did not come so easily from the pit. This is the finished product:
On the left you see the mango skin and pit. And on the right is the amount of actual fruit that was in cube-sized pieces all ready to eat (this pile is minus about 4 pieces which I ate before I remembered I had to take the picture). I know I'm no mango expert but it just shouldn't be this hard to eat fruit!!!
Moving along.
Sweet mango:
Sweet mango halved easier but I think it's because I didn't cut right along the pit with the result being that I just shaved off half the mango from the pit.
Definitely a higher fruit to skin-and-pit ratio. Sweet mango was sweet and more perfumy than regular mango. The texture was firmer and, unlike regular mango who mushed in my mouth and got stringys caught in my teeth, eating sweet mango was like eating a good solid piece of fruit.Later I looked at this video: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-cut-a-mango-2 (I hope I did that linking thingy right...). Trust me, it's not as easy as the professional chef makes it look.
Now, I really thought I luuuuuuurrrrved mangos. Like, lurved them a lot. And yes, I like mangos. They're tasty and exotic and fun but more I think I just like mango flavoured things. Like, mango-and-other-exotic-fruit juice or mango chutney or mango ice cream. Mango the fruit? Not so much worth the effort.
Tastiness: 7 - yummy, but not melt-your-face-off-eat-every-day yummy.
Ease of extraction: 2 - fruit sticks to pit and skin and is a bit mushy and juicy and incredibly sticky. If you said I could have as many mangos as I wanted for free any time I wanted but I had to cut them myself I would probably go ahead and pass.
Overall nommability: 14. Not a good score for Robyn's first post.... but seriously, it's hard to imagine a harder fruit to get at. I don't want to work at it I just want to eeeeeet it!
PS - This counts as 2 fruits right? I would score them the same anyways.... yes, I think it counts as 2.
