July 18, 2005
Mangos
You know it's summer in Miami when, as you drive down any neighborhood street, you see a table with an umbrella and a chair next to it with a sign saying something like "MANGOS - $1." Atop the table will be a slew of the yellow and orange and red fruit piled up. Or, you'll go over to a relative's house and before you leave they'll say "Esperate! Toma. Llevate unos mangos!" and they'll hand you a grocery bag stuffed with mangos from their tree in their backyard. Miami Mangos. Mangos, mangos and more mangos. Le sumba el mango!
Now I love mangos, and I'll eat them every which way imaginable. Chilled and sliced. In chunks. Peeled. The squish them a bit and poke a hole in the end and suck out the juice method. Mango shakes. Dulce de mango. Mango chutney. Take a nice fillet of fish, Dorado preferably, broil it with slices of mango on top and them smother it with black bean sauce. Le sumba el mango!
The mango is a very versatile fruit indeed.
So versatile, in fact, is the mango, that it can be used to topple dictators.
Thus, I submit, for your reading pleasure an incredible work of fiction by my friends Jerome du Bois and Catherine King aptly titled "La Pionera and the New Mango."
La Pionera and the New Mango. Introduction: Meet the Mantis
La Pionera and The New Mango. Part One, Section One: Guillermo's Hangover
La Pionera and the New Mango. The Legend Of The Seed Man
This is a story that you'll want to savor, folks, like a nice, ripe, juicy mango.
Posted by Val Prieto at July 18, 2005 09:56 AM
Comments
I really missed my mangoes this year. My carrie mango tree produced very little fruit this year, it's given about 200-300 mangoes on good years in the past.
Posted by: Robert at July 18, 2005 12:46 PM
Coņo... that picture is making my mouth water. The only Mangos you can get here in the midwest are the green sour ones. blah.
Posted by: Songuacassal at July 18, 2005 12:49 PM
I need to move to Miami!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Candy at July 18, 2005 02:16 PM
What a gift these stories are. Reading them with awe, tears, and laughter, at the end there is one all consuming thought. It has to end, please God, make fidel die. Thanks Val.
Posted by: Kathleen at July 18, 2005 02:28 PM
Val. I have to thank you so much for all your good postings!! I don't know how you find them, and where you find the time; but its all good!!
This Mango story makes me wonder and think that if you get all your regular babalu family bloggers together, I bet you can write your own "Le Sumba el Mango Story"!!
Posted by: carmen at July 18, 2005 03:10 PM
Torture, pure torture, all that talk about mangos. First the ribs, now the mangos. That fish recipe sounds good! So what does "Le Sumba" mean? That verb is not in my dictionary. Clearly I need a Cuban-English dictionary. Does such a thing exist?
Posted by: Regina at July 18, 2005 03:40 PM
Oh, and by the way, these stories are really good writing!!
Posted by: Regina at July 18, 2005 03:40 PM
In Cuba, no mangos for the people.
You know, the embargo...
Posted by: Eleggua at July 18, 2005 05:02 PM
The mango has always been my favorite fruit. In front of my old home in Guines, Cuba, there was a full-grown tree that used to produce the most delicious fruit. I hope it's still alive and well, though I doubt it.
Years later, the first home that my wife and I purchased, in Miami, had two nearly full-grown trees in the backyard. They were very instrumental in the selection of that property. Unfortunately, Hurricane Andrew killed those two trees, among many others, and we *still* mourn them.
Every single time I visit South Florida, I look around for a supply of mangoes to "smuggle" back to Maryland. Once I loaded a soft-sided carry on bag and took it onboard with me, getting a lot of weird looks from everyone, but I didn't care. I doubt that in today's more "supercharged" times I would be able to do the same.
But I would at least try. Invariably, the Florida mangoes all taste infinitely better than the ones availabe here in the more northernly location.
Our family is already contemplating a permanent return to Florida. And of course I won't buy a house that doesn't come with at least one fruit-bearing mango tree.
So relish those delicious ripe mangoes, Floridians... and someone please, please, send me a batch... I'll gladly reimburse you for the postage.
Does anybody know if the fruit and vegetable "flea market" in Hialeah is still operating? We used to get fantastic deals on whole buckets of mangoes there!
Julio
Posted by: Julio C. Zangroniz at July 18, 2005 05:10 PM
Val:
Thanks a lot, man. I'd say more, but I have to get back to writing.
About mangoes: The June/July issue of Saveur food magazine contains an excellent article about the "King of Fruit" by Madhur Jaffrey --with recipes.
Le zumba el mango!
JdB
Posted by: Jerome du Bois at July 18, 2005 05:21 PM
Great story...
JdB
Can you publish those mango recipes somewhere?
In Cuba they use to say when something is really confusing, that it's an arroz con mango (rice with mango) but then I discovered in Oriente that there are people who actually eat arroz con mango. Maybe is some West Indies thing...
Posted by: CB at July 18, 2005 07:54 PM
Julio, are you seriously thinking of moving down here? That is great news indeed!
Posted by: George L. Moneo at July 19, 2005 10:43 AM
Yes, George, that was our main objective all along. For instance, my wife and I never sold our home in Miami (it's on 64 Ave., just off Coral Way). But we wanted the children, then 4 and 6 years old, exposed to some of the best "culture" in the Washington DC metropolitan area.
Now that the "kiddies" are, respectively, 22 and 24 and living/working in Phoenix, AZ and Schenectady, NY, we "elders" are, relatively speaking, free to continue to live our own lives.
So be warned... it's only a matter of time until you have us back in South Florida.
ManCamp, here we come --if we are invited to visit, that is!
But one thing's for sure: we hope to be able to enjoy many more years of mango-eating and scuba diving ahead of us, as well as relatively easy access to cafe cubano and pastelitos de guayaba as we can safely consume --whether all that takes place in Florida or in Cuba, or both.
So see ya "soon," chico!
Julio
Posted by: Julio C. Zangroniz at July 19, 2005 04:25 PM