Mangoes Sweet Mangoes
Mangoes Sweet Mangoes Ripe Mangoes - goes the Karadi rhyme.
Mango season has finally arrived here in Baden. The local Sri Lankan store finally stocked Alphonsos and Banganappali mangoes yesterday and they were like gone almost before they arrived. We were there just right in time - a few minutes early or late, we would have missed the frenzy.
Armed with mangoes, we came home and after dinner with papa sleeping, it was time to attack. Armed with a mango each, we sat down to the serious fun business of eating a mambapazham fully, biting into its succulent orange flesh and savouring the sweetness and flavour. Was it delicious, probably not as good as what we get in India, but it was a great treat indeed!
Mangoes evoke such strong poignant memories - the first being the Banganapalli mangoes that Appa would buy directly from the mango plantations in Banganapalli, Andhra Pradesh. It helped we lived a few kilometers away and Appa would go in the Jeep(Mahindra) and come back with a basket full of ripe Banganapalli mangoes, probabaly 25 or so. And then get down to the serious business of peeling the skin, while we all watched, trying not to show our over-eagerness. And then he would cut it and pass it around to all of us. Once Appa left for office, we abandoned all the ceremony of cutting, peeling and would directly dive for a full one and eating it as it. And the mangoes would all be eaten by next morning.
Every May, Amma would also embark on serious pickle making. We had this lovely mango tree in the backyard which every year would yield hudnreds of mangoes. Amma would make Avakki, Maghayi, Thokku and store them in big jaadis, they lasted us for an entire year. The mustard, red chillies, gigely oil for Avakkai were specially bought from Miriyalaguda, the red chillies had very few seeds in them. There was this old servant lady who would come home and grind the chillies and mustard in the kal oral(grinding stone). Amma and Vijayan would then get down to making the pickles and the rest of us were shooed out of the house when the process took place. The pickles were really really yummy.
When we moved to Kerala, it was time for different varities - like Movandan, Malgova, Naadan Mampazham etc and sharing loadfuls, eating them slowly by the puzhai kadavu. And the mambazha kozhambu, uppilitta manga, manga curry and kadugu managa made by my grandmother(Chithi)- amazing!
Mango season has finally arrived here in Baden. The local Sri Lankan store finally stocked Alphonsos and Banganappali mangoes yesterday and they were like gone almost before they arrived. We were there just right in time - a few minutes early or late, we would have missed the frenzy.
Armed with mangoes, we came home and after dinner with papa sleeping, it was time to attack. Armed with a mango each, we sat down to the serious fun business of eating a mambapazham fully, biting into its succulent orange flesh and savouring the sweetness and flavour. Was it delicious, probably not as good as what we get in India, but it was a great treat indeed!
Mangoes evoke such strong poignant memories - the first being the Banganapalli mangoes that Appa would buy directly from the mango plantations in Banganapalli, Andhra Pradesh. It helped we lived a few kilometers away and Appa would go in the Jeep(Mahindra) and come back with a basket full of ripe Banganapalli mangoes, probabaly 25 or so. And then get down to the serious business of peeling the skin, while we all watched, trying not to show our over-eagerness. And then he would cut it and pass it around to all of us. Once Appa left for office, we abandoned all the ceremony of cutting, peeling and would directly dive for a full one and eating it as it. And the mangoes would all be eaten by next morning.
Every May, Amma would also embark on serious pickle making. We had this lovely mango tree in the backyard which every year would yield hudnreds of mangoes. Amma would make Avakki, Maghayi, Thokku and store them in big jaadis, they lasted us for an entire year. The mustard, red chillies, gigely oil for Avakkai were specially bought from Miriyalaguda, the red chillies had very few seeds in them. There was this old servant lady who would come home and grind the chillies and mustard in the kal oral(grinding stone). Amma and Vijayan would then get down to making the pickles and the rest of us were shooed out of the house when the process took place. The pickles were really really yummy.
When we moved to Kerala, it was time for different varities - like Movandan, Malgova, Naadan Mampazham etc and sharing loadfuls, eating them slowly by the puzhai kadavu. And the mambazha kozhambu, uppilitta manga, manga curry and kadugu managa made by my grandmother(Chithi)- amazing!