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Mad about mangoes

Summer in the city is synonymous with mango mania. A time when both the native varieties and those that arrive from beyond the borders are lapped up by Mangaloreans, says M. RAGHURAM

PHOTO: PAUL NORONHA

KING OF FRUITS Mangaloreans love their mangoes and dish out traditional and exotic fare from this seasonal fruit

Come summer and Mangalore goes mangoes! In fact the alluring shades of yellow makes the summer more colourful and people tend to forget the heat by hunting for the luscious fruit in the markets.

The best time for mangoes has just begun. It was only raw mangoes that ruled till now. Little children, mothers and grandmothers obsessed over the green king as it was pickled, and children found their world in plucking raw mangoes and savouring them with a dash of salt and red chilli powder.

But come April and the mangoes are ripe and its time for tasting mangoes in every different way.

Those in city enjoy them in the form of dishes drawn from traditional cuisine. But recently, the ones which have made their way into the market are simply lip-smacking. The mango mousse, mango tarts, mango pastries and several others are hot favourites in bakeries of Mangalore like Bon-Bons in Yeyyadi, Smokies outlets, Taj Manjarun at Old Port Road and at Saibeen Complex and other places.

But it is the ice-cream parlours in the city that drive gourmets crazy — whipping up mango cream in tonnes and mixing fresh mango pulp with milk to make such thick mango milkshakes that each spoon you scoop feels virtually like a piece of Alphonso!

But Mukund Kamath of Ideal Ice Creams says it was hard to get good quality mangoes in large quantities, so he will stick to his two varieties of premium mango ice-creams and milk shakes this season.

The city uses up at least 10 tonnes of mangoes every day and only 10 percent of it constitutes exotic varieties like King Alphonsos, Rathnagiri and Devgarh (all from Maharashtra), while a few varieties like Pairy (Raspuri, as it is known in Bangalore) and Mallika and Banganpalli from Andhra Pradesh. But all of them arrive a little late (by the end of April).

And till then what rule the roost are local varieties like Kadri, Mundappa, Sakkare Kasi, Kaatu and local crop of Neelam and Totapuri. But it is the Kaatu variety (meaning wild or country) that always motivates a discerning housewife to try out new recipes. The favourite being the Sasuve dish — a must in every household during the mango season. The small and very aromatic Kaatu mangoes are boiled in water with jaggery and green chilly to a thick sauce and garnished with mustard seeds and curry leaves. The tangy taste of the dish never fails to titillate the taste buds of the bitterest critics.

But what children love is the Mangalorean Mambalam (Mambalam has a weak English equivalent in jelly). And only few houses in rural Mangalore prepare it. They lay out thick mango puree on a straw mat and dry it in the sun. When it is dried fully they lay another layer and continue to do so till all the layers set and take a form of a mat. These "mango mats" arrive in the market only in a few pockets and vanish within no time. Children love chewing on this tough, fibrous and very tangy tid-bit. Mangalorean Mambalam is such a hot favourite that it's exported to other countries as well.

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