Mango season

It's hot this season, and every day my family has a plate of shredded mango mixed with fish sauce, chili, and garlic as a side dish to add flavor to our meals and make them more appetizing with rice, but it's gone in no time.

Starting after Tet (Lunar New Year), traveling to the countryside, you'll see mango trees covered in white blossoms. Then, in the summer, they're laden with fruit, and the hottest season is also when mangoes are cheapest. Quite a while ago, I saw a type of mango at the market that was tiny but incredibly sweet and very cheap, 4,000-5,000 VND/kg. It wasn't the same delicious taste as the chewy, delicately sweet Hoa Loc mangoes; this tiny mango was soft, juicy, and distinctly rustic. The sweetness was intense from start to finish, but not harsh on the throat, incredibly satisfying with a hint of sourness. Unlike many mangoes in the Mekong Delta, which have similar sweet and sour flavors but are firm and dry when sliced, many people prefer the mangoes from my hometown, saying they taste best when they're juicy. Everyone has their own taste.

I asked the seller what kind of mangoes they were and learned they were from Dien Khanh, my hometown, planted a few years ago. Because they were the first few harvests, the fruits were still small. The mangoes used to be so sour that people cut them all down to plant new ones. If they didn't cut them down, they grafted the trees to create sweeter varieties. Therefore, over time, the mangoes from my hometown have become less sour and more sweet. It reminded me of the mangoes from the old days, so incredibly sour! Eating green mangoes raw with fish sauce and sugar was the sweetest thing ever; dipping them in chili salt was too much!

In Phan Thiet (formerly), there was a dish of shrimp paste stir-fried with tamarind, also a specialty of Central Vietnam. Mangoes dipped in shrimp paste were a favorite of the people of Khanh Hoa . In the old days, ripe mangoes, no matter how much you squeezed them, were still sour. Back then, there weren't many sweets and snacks, so we could eat any sour mango, and we could eat a whole basket of ripe ones! As life improved and we had more sweets and snacks, mangoes suddenly became considered old-fashioned. Perhaps, according to consumer tastes, farmers had to change their crops and create sweet mango varieties?

My grandmother's garden used to have a lot of mangoes. There was a type of mango called "elephant mango" that was only eaten raw. Pour some fish sauce into a bowl, add some sugar to make a thick paste, and crush some chili peppers. Slice the green mangoes thinly, scoop up the sugary sauce, eat it all, and drink plenty of water until you're full – you'll skip rice! During this season, whenever we went to my grandmother's house, Aunt Ba would always pick a big bag of mangoes for each of us. She'd say, "I sold the tree to someone, but I don't eat this sour mango anymore. The price is so low, I'd lose money picking and transporting them, so the buyers don't come to pick them." One year, so many mangoes fell that morning. Seeing the mangoes carpet the ground, she'd pick a whole basketful, peel the ripe ones, and make mango rice paper rolls to save for her grandchildren. "That way, they'll have something to take home," she'd say.

Nowadays, with convenient transportation, mangoes are available year-round. Mangoes from the Mekong Delta are transported to Central Vietnam in various varieties; however, out-of-season mangoes are not cheap. With any fruit, it's best and cheapest to eat it in season.

In Cam Lam, the Thuy Trieu mangoes are famous throughout the country. During this season, strolling through the orchards and admiring the trees laden with mangoes is a feast for the eyes. Cam Ranh mangoes are also among the most famous mango varieties nationwide. During the season, rows of mangoes line the highway, with their large, plump fruits and reddish-brown hues near the stem... A wide variety of mangoes await travelers, who can choose, bargain, and have them packed up to take away.

KIM DUY

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/van-hoa/202604/mua-xoai-b564573/