Quote:
|
the clouds parted and a shaft of pure golden sunlight shone straight down on an assortment of these pickled mangos. Some mixed, some extra hot, .... i grabbed 4 different bo
|
Shit man, I coulda told you that, I eat those all the time.
It's a south indian specialty. They're not really mangoes as "we" know them, they're a variety grown in south/western asian coutries, especially india...and they're picked before maturity. This practice originated in the more village-y areas of south india, whether or not it came out of food shortage...etc, I'm not sure. For some trivia - they grow a lot of cashews there too.
Spals brother is half indian, so I've learned quite a bit from him in terms of cooking/flavours (to an extent), and a few treats like this one.
There's generally two varieties (not so much in terms of flavour, there's more, but shape/size of mango), theres:
The larger peices of the larger mangoes...they're generally milder, they're quite hard and not very palitable, you CAN chew through them, but it's more the sauces they're in that they've been used as a part of, although if you add the peices to a curry, they'll soften.
Then there's the TINY ones, a little more bitter (my personal favourite), these are much softer, and have not developed a hard seed yet; they're babies. They're actually BOTH "under-ripe", hence the bitterness and darkness in colour.
In this case, the sauce is more secondary...they're in a deep red sauce more often than not, and have a real kick, the fruit is very tart, and the sauce is a good heat. I like to cut them up into tiny peices and add them to salads and sandwiches.
The variety of different flavours varies region to region...there are SO many different manufacturers, that telling you a brand among thousands would be ridiculous. Pretty much all I've tried has been great, so have a go at all you can find, no doubt you'll find a favourite. Man, I love living in a town with 3 eastern asian grocery stores, and two indian ones...spice heaven.
Oh, and if you can get it...my personal favourite at the moment is
"Mother's recipe" Kerala Vadu Mango. It's of the latter mentioned variety, and just has that kind of intense flavour that makes the sides of your jaws feel like they're aching...but in a good way.