After lapping up one yum food post after another I wonder if it crossed anyone’s mind that no fruit had made it to my list yet. Truth be told, the king of all fruits does like to make a grand entrance (or show up late, if you may 😛 ). Hey, it isn’t my doing that mangoes aren’t called apples. My favourite yellow colour, the mouth-watering sweetness, the zillion ways it can be eaten in and most of all, the only thing that makes me wait eagerly for summer, mango is life! 🙂

Mango is the national fruit of India and extremely popular for its unique taste, fragrance and variety. It is a seasonal, pulpy tropical fruit that is cultivated and eaten across the Indian subcontinent. Raw mango is very sour and is the key ingredient in many pickles, chutneys, dry spices etc. Mangoes are rich in taste and calorie content. They also contain good amount of dietary fibre, minerals, vitamins, potassium and antioxidants. They must preferably be consumed fresh when in season for their wonderful health benefits.

“I can’t stop you, but you should!” A warned me wearily every time I polished off a mango. I was a second time would-be mom and in my first trimester then. My gynaecologist had advised moderation, well aware that my cravings were getting intense. Although it was a healthy pregnancy A constantly bickered about my slapdash eating habits. Angel (I swear!), on the other hand, sweetly blackmailed me into stealing a bite. “It is our little secret”, she would say to me (I’m sure, with a wink). 😉

I never believed that food hankerings during pregnancy faintly signalled the preferences of the baby until I had kids myself. A Jr and Angel had clearly broadcasted ahead of time that they were as different as chalk and cheese. A Jr made me stuff on yellow banana chips and halwa whereas all things spicy and chatpata were Angel’s choice. Both of them jumped at the sight of a mango though and made my tummy hurt, literally. How could I stop myself then? 🙁

Years later, their obsession has only gotten worse. Come summer and the same pre-recorded “Aam kab laoge” tape starts replaying in our home at regular intervals. To be fair, they do give each other turns. They’ll clean their room, sacrifice their television time and offer help in the kitchen to cajole me to cut a mango for them. I wonder if I should ask them to pluck stars from the sky for me someday. They’ll definitely ponder over it for one serious moment, I know. 😛

My own childhood is filled with all kinds of mango memories too. There are umpteen varieties of mangoes like kesar, langda, badami, lalbag, etc but our home was always stocked only with hapus (alphonso). Dad placed orders in advance and hired extra hands to lug those big wooden boxes home. Their beautiful aroma filled the entire room while they slowly matured naturally. Unlike the artificially ripened mangoes of today their taste and texture was amazing! Too bad they’re too hard to find now. 🙁

Aamras is often made in our home during summers. Some people make it with pure pulp whereas we add milk to it. Puri and kurdai (fried coil-shaped papads) are generally served with it, although I sometimes opt for other healthier baked versions. A typical summer lunch would be a calorie-packed affair which should put you in a trance within minutes. No guesses why people pile on during summer holidays! 😉 🙂

I’ve had my own share of fun creating new mango-tweaked recipes. Mango lassi, kheer, cake, amrakhand, pancakes, mint sorbet etc. have turned out quite well. A enjoys them but for him only the undiluted mango is the one worth having. My diet doesn’t allow me to pander to my yearnings everytime, but who can deny surrendering to a love that only shows up once a year? 🙂

I won’t ask if you like mangoes. Tell me, which mango variety is your favourite? 😉 What is your mango story?

This post is written for #BlogchatterA2Z and #AtoZChallenge for April 2019

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