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Tastes & Tales of Cayman
Danger: Mango Season!!
Franklyn Smith
This week's column is a public service announcementto alert readers about hazardous driving conditions that havedeveloped along Cayman's roads. I'm not talking about the epidemicof overloaded speeding dump trucks along Crewe Road or carjackingattempts by giant land crabs along the Harquail Bypass. This ismore serious.
Mango season has just begun.
Don't be deceived by that smooth blushingskin and fragrant scent. These are the most dangerous fruits inCayman when they first appear. We've suffered through eight monthsof local mango deprivation. Since the first flowers appeared ontrees in January, we've had mangoes on our minds, surreptitiouslywatching every tree we pass for signs of edible fruit.
The sight of the season's first ripe mangoesdangling from roadside trees triggers reckless behavior rivaledonly by drivers checking e-mail on their cellphones. There shouldbe signs posted: " Warning: Ripe Mangoes May Appear WithoutWarning. Be Prepared for Sudden Stops."
To increase government revenue, the RoyalCayman Islands Police could introduce another category of DUIfines: mangoes. It's not just the brake-shredding stop-and-swervesat the sight of all those ripe Springfels at Frankie's Fruit Standin Red Bay. Or the NASCAR maneuvers at rush hour to stop and snatchfallen mangoes from the shoulder.
It's those drivers desperate for their first taste of mango inmonths, devouring at full speed along Shamrock Road. This is somethingbest done in the sea, not in business dress behind the wheel ofa Toyota Camry.
We forgive youngsters-mango 'thiefin"from the neighbor's tree is an expected rite of passage for kids.But the craving gets worse as you get older and causes bizarrebehavior even by respected local adults. I am referring to thesmartly dressed gentleman I saw standing on the hood of his HondaCRV in Savannah, trying to snatch mangoes hanging over a fencealong the main road. By Island rules, that puts them within legalpublic domain. And only in the Caribbean are mangoes a universallyaccepted excuse for being late for work in late May.
Unfortunately, I'm as guilty as anyone.Last Sunday, I almost rolled my 10-year old Charade right therein Red Bay passing Frankie's stand. The sight of mangoes in mid-Mayambushed me. A $10 bill later, I had a sackful of treasure indenominations of Southern Blush, Springfels and Haden. I droveright home as fast as I could (legally) to stuff one into my face.
Why this madness?
The mango's botanical name, Mangifera indica,sounds like "magnificent." And that's the way Caribbeanpeople feel about the Queen of all tropical fruits. One of nature'smost sensuous edibles, the mango's fragrance and flavor are almostimpossible to describe-it has hints of so many tantalizing tastes.
Mangoes are the world's finest peach witha touch of lime, pineapple or grape. Sometimes you'll taste adash of vanilla, cinnamon or coriander. No wonder Caribbean residents,native and transplanted, go crazy over them. Consider this Jamaicanexplanation of mango magic, translated from the vernacular: "Mangois the breast-shaped fruit grown men nip greedily in public withoutshame. It God's way of making West Indian man outgrow his mother."
This isn't strictly a Caribbean passion.Today, mangoes are the most widely eaten fruit in the world. Youcan even find far from the tropics, in UK and American citieslike New York where people think Sandals is a Caribbean island.
Native to the Himalayas, the mango is an evergreen that traveleda long way from Hindustan to reach the West Indies. Mangoes havebeen revered and even cherished as sacred by some cultures sinceancient times. But exactly when mangoes arrived in the Caribbeanremains a source of debate.
Tropical fruit authorities agree it wascarried across the Atlantic by 16th century Portuguese explorers,who discovered it in the East Indies and Philippines and carriedplants to West Africa and later, Brazil, where it flourished.From there, mangoes migrated to the northern Spanish territoriesin Cuba and Hispaniola. It didn't arrive in Barbados until 1742-andJamaica, around 1782. Today, there are over 500 named varietiesofficially, but new hybrids appear all the time.
The tough, hairy reputation of West Indianmango is no longer true. There now more than 200 varieties ofmango throughout the Caribbean, many with smooth, voluptuous,fiber-free flesh. These are much different from the messy ballsof syrupy dental floss that turned many people like me-offthis fruit initially.
In Jamaica, the populace over there arefortunate enough to have mangoes of some kind ripening almostyear-round, but in Cayman, mango season is usually late May throughAugust, with some varieties straggling into September. In bothcountries Julie and Carrie mangoes are two of the most popular.
No one knows when mangoes arrived in theseislands--the small, wild "hairy" or turpentine mangoeshave been here as long as anyone can remember. But more desirable,"designer" varieties are definitely a late 20th centuryarrival in Grand Cayman.
We can thank Franklyn Smith of East Endfor our current bounty of mangoes. Back in 1980 and 1981, theprogressive young farmer gave local agriculture a big boost whenhe imported 21 new varieties of mangoes. There are more than 30kinds of mango in Cayman today.
Mango varieties vary dramatically in sizeand individual fruits can weigh from 6 ounces to over two pounds.When selecting ripe mangoes, choose fruits that yield slightlyto pressure but are not completely soft. Don't rely on the color.Some varieties, like Martin, remain green even when fully ripe.The test: ripe mangoes are very fragrant and will give slightlyto gentle finger pressure. If you buy unripe mangoes and don'tplan to use them green, place them in sealed paper bags at roomtemperature and they will ripen in three or four days.
Until we satisfy that first rush of mangocravings, it seems pointless to offer recipes. No one will eventhink about eating this fruit any way other than peeling, pushinginto da mout' and suckin' every last morsel of pulp from the pit.But just in case some of you have a windfall of mangoes in youryard and are too stingy to share (shame on you!).