Today I learned how to confront a mango.

Sometimes I’m a little scared off by certain produce. And I don’t just mean when a potato grows a somewhat disturbing set of antlers:

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I’m talking about produce that is mysterious to me. Kumquats. Pomegranates. Avocados. Turnips. Parsnip. These are all things that I never had growing up, and so I do not know how to select them, use them, eat them, prepare them – anything them.

Now, anyone who knows me can tell you that I am quite adventurous when it comes to trying new foods. Over the years, I’ve tried everything from octopus to green tea ice cream. Well, when I was in college I had one particularly interesting eating experience.

One of my friends had a kindred spirit of spontaneity, and we would do completely random things from time to time, like drive to the nearest playground and see who could swing the highest. Well, one night he had accompanied me to the grocery store and we saw a display of mangoes and decided to try them.

We sat in the parking lot eating them, skin and all, like you’d eat an apple. They were delicious – so juicy and tropical. It was like someone had bound sunshine into a peel. We were chatting away and got closer to the seed in the middle and were gnawing at the remaining flesh when we both suddenly realized we had something stuck in our teeth. Little did we know that mangoes are booby-trapped and that there is a layer of dense fibers around the seeds that, if eaten in the way we tried, will leave you feeling like you have just flossed with a string of twine. We grinned for each other and could easily see the hundreds of poky strands jutting between our bicuspids. We laughed until tears, and that night I learned how NoT to eat a fresh mango.

It’s been a dozen years since then, and since I’m embarking on this mission of exploration I figured I should give it another try. This time armed with a little research. I looked up how to choose a ripe mango (smells good with a little give when you press the skin), and brought one home from the store.

Ready for round two.

Mango juice is good, but the fruit is so tasty, too.

I love the idea that this fruit has been somewhere warm, soaking up the sunshine.

You can see here that a mango’s shape is like a flattened football. When you stand it vertically, like so, the parts on the sides that bow out are the best part of the fruit’s flesh.

First step is peeling. Something else I learned about mangoes today is that mango trees belong to the family Anacardiaceae. Another family member in that group? Poison Ivy. Now, from what I've read, mango fruit itself is pretty harmless. However if you are particularly sensitive to poison ivy you may be sensitive to the sap and natural oils on the peel and should be careful to wash the fruit well and wash your hands after handling the peel. I didn't know that before. And since I'm somewhat sensitive to poison ivy, I was careful to wash right up afterward.

Cut off the part of the fruit that bows out, on each side of the seed,

aka stone.

Is it making a face at me?

Now, dice the flesh of the fruit.

And when you're done with that, you can trim more off of the seed.
Don't be caught off-guard by the siren call of the fruit left on that seed.
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I washed and scrubbed the remaining flesh off
so you could see those tricky fibers underneath:


I spent many hours flossing and laughing....
so you could know what NoT to do. ;)

It was every bit as tasty as I remembered it.

Now that I know how to do this, there's a recipe for mango sorbet I've always thought looked tasty... Again, it's not a cooking blog, but I'm also not afraid to enjoy a season of food exploration. Especially since lessons about the outside world are largely unavailable right now.

And if any of you has an idea of something I should learn, or something you can teach me - please feel free to let me know. :)

I've got some exciting things lined up for this month. I'm in the process of setting up interviews with a few businesses and I already have a date with Smokey the Bear (!) and some other mascots in the near future. Awesome.

And, to throw in something extra, I am trying to teach my daughter patience. So here's our pet project for this week:

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My daughter's new pet.

Baby T-Rex and Skilpad hang out in the pool.
He's supposed to grow 600x his size.

I'll give you updates on progress at the week's end.

Have you learned anything new, lately? Come on, don't be shy...

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I'll be back tomorrow as usual, and,

I'll keep you posted.