Know your mangoes

[JohnnyJazz]

It's now full mango season and they are everywhere. I always like mangoes, the yellow kind. But since living in Thailand I realized there was an other kind, the green mango. At first I didn't like it but I learned to appreciate its different, sour still sweet taste. And then even within the yellow mangoes I realized there was different sub species. Which one do you prefer ? How do you eat them ?

Edited May 19, 2015 by JohnnyJazz

[willyumiii]

Do you think that maybe the "green" is just the "yellow" that has not ripened yet?

[Jasun]

There are loads of mango types, 4 or 5 popular in Thailand. I love the ones sold by the street fruit vendors, right at that point when they are just ripening up - still green with a tinge of yellow, just before they get too sweet.

[zeichen]

There are special variety for unripe mangoes that people eat which are different than Nam Dok Mai, the common ripe variety. If you eat unripe NamDokMAi they are extremely sour but do make a good sour pickle.

There is a large variety translated as King mango which are pretty good but I like flavor of Chokanon, they are slightly more round.

The reddish hued mangoes from Philipines are becoming more popular here too.

My preferred method of eating is quite messy, I just peel it like a banana and suck the fruit from the seed. Must do it outside or over the sink but it is quite refreshing.

[Toknarok]

The only place you can eat a mango properly is in the bath!

[marko kok prong]

My wife purchased a sapling of a red mango variety,the fruit is red,but it will take a few years to fruit.

[weegee]

The only place you can eat a mango properly is in the bath!

Now thats a mango....

[kannot]

I grow the red ones. the green and yellow and also a "giant" mango about the size of a vary large grapefruit..............Wife says Im the best!

[Thongkorn]

Do you think that maybe the "green" is just the "yellow" that has not ripened yet?

No the green ones are bitter, the yellow ones sweet, the two are different types,

[sipi]

Nam Dok Mai and Keo Savoy are the popular varieties eaten green, with salt and crushed dried chilly. Yum, just like green tamarind..

Have the water on hand.

[MaeJoMTB]

Do you think that maybe the "green" is just the "yellow" that has not ripened yet?

That's a bit like the Thais saying a lemon is a ripe lime.

[Gecko123]

Nam Dok Mai and Keo Savoy are the popular varieties eaten green, with salt and crushed dried chilly. Yum, just like green tamarind..

Have the water on hand.

Hey sipi:

I'm impressed you know about green tamarind.

[T_Dog]

There are unripe green mangoes.

There are ripe mangoes that turn yellow.

There are also green mangoes that stay green.

Many varieties and I love the long ones that are the sweetest when they are ripe. Hong Thong rum, a touch of ice, a lime, and a load of mangoes in the blender make for a heavenly afternoon!

[sipi]

Nam Dok Mai and Keo Savoy are the popular varieties eaten green, with salt and crushed dried chilly. Yum, just like green tamarind..

Have the water on hand.

Hey sipi:

I'm impressed you know about green tamarind.

Yummmmm......

[zeichen]

"Nam Dok Mai and Keo Savoy are the popular varieties eaten green, with salt and crushed dried chilly. "

Keo savoy definitely, but Nam Dok Mai is just too sour. It is not commonly sold unripe for eating. I don't think that I have ever seen it sold at unripe mango stands.

[NancyL]

I figured out that just about any recipe that involves ham or pork and peaches works just as well (or better) with mangoes filling in for the peaches. Hubby always volunteers to peel and cut up the mangoes and then stands over the kitchen sink and sucks the pit, much like someone would suck the bits off a peach pit.

[sipi]

We grow Nam Dok Mai, Keo Savoy and another type. I have only seen them eaten yellow in Khao Neow Ma Muang. Otherwise eaten green. Must be a regional thing.

[joy16]

I prefer Ok-rong with sticky rice.

[zeichen]

joy that looks like chokanon.

[cooked]

Don't forget that unripe mangoes are used for some dishes, instead of Pappaya. We also have wild mangoes, nice straight trunk and actually looks like a tree. The taste is quite strong, the seed is even bigger than in the cultivated kinds (Mangifera indica). Why did someone plant a wild mango? In years where rain has put paid to the pollination of the blossoms of the cultivated ones, this one has flowered a few weeks earlier and managed to keep its fruit, whereas the cultivated ones had no fruit at all. This year, no wild mangoes due to rain but plenty of cultivated ones.

[willyumiii]

I guess I am still an Issan country bumpkin, with a lot to learn about being a mango snob.

In my wife's little Issan village where I lived for my first two years in Thailand there were many different mangos, but all were treated the same.

Whatever tree they came from, we ate them green until they turned yellow or red, then we ate yellow and red ones.

Seriously, with enough pepper and salt or sugar, the green ones all tasted pretty much the same to us!

[Gecko123]

Some varieties become cloying sweet when fully ripened, and are best eaten unripe.

Thais stew mangoes and turn it into fruit leather.

This year I sun dried about 200 mangoes. Took about a week to fully dry, and very labour intensive, but absolutely delicious.

Watching 'The Sopranos' while eating mangoes. Does life get any better?

Edited May 20, 2015 by Gecko123

[kannot]

Some varieties become cloying sweet when fully ripened, and are best eaten unripe.

Thais stew mangoes and turn it into fruit leather.

This year I sun dried about 200 mangoes. Took about a week to fully dry, and very labour intensive, but absolutely delicious.

Watching 'The Sopranos' while eating mangoes. Does life get any better?

its does if u turn the sopranos off

[daoyai]

Do you think that maybe the "green" is just the "yellow" that has not ripened yet?

That's a bit like the Thais saying a lemon is a ripe lime.

Actually lime do turn yellow when ripe... usually picked green though AND yes, green mangos are unripe. My fave is what we called a cigar mango in Hawaii, long and narrow often with one end orange, the middle yellow and the other end green with an odd distictive smell. arroy.

[dddave]

I know this is anathema and might get me blacklisted but I've never found mangos in Thailand that compared equally with the ones I used to buy on the street in Jamaica. Mangos here are delicious but the Jamaican varieties used to burst with an intense mango flavor that I've not found in Asia.

A friend of mine used to have a small farm in Costa Rica. He married a Thai woman and they lived in Colorado but used to go to the Costa Rica farm for holidays. His Thai wife really loved it there and even she used to admit that most of the Caribbean fruit was better than Thai.

Edited May 21, 2015 by dddave

[zeichen]

"yes, green mangos are unripe"

Not actually true. We have a Nam DOK MAi that is still green when ripe inside. It lightens in color but still green and not yellow even though the fruit is really juicy and sweet.