Spirit of Aloha | Features | May/June 2007

Bites of Paradise

MARVELOUS MANGOES
By Joan Namkoong
Photographs by Ziggy Livnat

PHOTO: ENVISION / CORBIS PHOTO: BRETT UPRICHARD

“Don’t eat too much, you’ll get a tummy ache,” my mother used to say when I was a kid, as I relished a slice of sour, crunchy green mango dipped in a sa­vory mix of shoyu, salt and pepper. The mouth-puckering, tart-salty combination and the distinctive flavor of green man­go were uniquely addictive. I think I loved green mangoes best when I was a kid, especially the vinegary pickled ones and the sticky, sweet anise-flavored mango seed made with those firm green orbs. Today, I relish mangoes ripe, in their prime, tasting of peaches, pineapple and cantaloupe, unified into a sweet, tart flavor within its golden-orange, soft, creamy flesh, enhanced by the magical aroma of a perfect fruit. Mangoes are truly a fruit to die for.

I’d have to say unequivocally, in my experience, that mangoes are best in Hawai‘i. This king of fruit basks well in the tropical sun, yielding sweet juicy flavors beyond comparison to mangoes grown in India, where they originated. Trust me, I’ve been there and tasted its mangoes, including the prized alphonso. I’ve also eaten mangoes in many South­east Asian countries. And, of course, there are the mangoes imported from South America, to our supermarkets, picked green to withstand the long journey to the U.S., therefore never developing the luscious mango flavor of a tree-ripened fruit. Nothing beats a mango grown in Hawai‘i.

In the days of my youth, there were just a few varieties that I really knew. There were common and Chinese mangoes, terrific for shoyu dipping, chutney and pickling, sometimes a bit stringy when ripe. Hadens, beautiful red-yellow-green when ripe, were prized for their full-bodied flavor and meaty size. Piries, aromatic, with a divine-tasting, creamy flesh, were relished for their distinctive flavor, loved by purists and shunned by many.

I’d always held Hadens and Piries in high regard until about a dozen years ago, when I began talking with mango farmers and first tasted their incredibly delicious fruit. Mango farmers? There were no mango farmers when I was a kid: Mangoes were handed over by the paper-bag-full when trees flourished in the backyards of friends, neighbors and family. Green or ripe, mangoes were shared, never bought, and only in­dulged in during the season, usually the summer months. For those of us who grew up in this era of backyard mango trees, buying mangoes can be a difficult experience, especially when prices are reaching $2 a pound. But I’ve come to terms with this, especially when I know that the mango I’m buying is grown in the Islands and can fulfill my expectations for a luscious taste experience.

Today’s mango farmers are growing varieties I never tasted as a kid. There are hundreds, to be sure, and I’ve only had about a dozen different ones over the years, each one becoming a new favorite. Golden Glow, Keitt, Alexander, Kent, Momi K, Ah Ping, Fairchild, Ed­ward, Wai‘anae Beauty, Nam Doc Mai, Palmer, Irwin, Glenn, Wong, Gouveia, Harders, Pope, Rapoza, Ataulfo, Zillate, Kona King, Mapulehu and Exel are some of the varieties growing abundantly today. Mangoes were brought to Hawai‘i in 1824; Florida varieties, including Haden, were introduced around the 1930s. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of varieties in the Islands, and the parentage of any one is difficult to trace. Take the Golden Glow, for example, a sumptuous specimen of golden-yellow, melt-in-your-mouth, juicy flesh with a perfect sweet-tart balance. “It has a conical shape and comes to a point, resembling a Southeast Asian mango, but I’m not sure of its parentage,” says Harold Iwa­moto of Yee Orchards, in Kïhei, Maui, where Golden Glow is a major variety.

Mangoes are an interesting fruit, says Iwamoto. “Most of the varieties that are commercially sold are monoembryonic. You take a seed from a mango you’ve eaten, plant it and a fruit emerges that is somewhat different from what you ate. If you plant a Haden seed, it will come out different. Polyembryonic mangoes come out the same; common mangoes are polyembryonic. To find a new man­go, you plant a seed, wait five or six years until it fruits, and hope that the fruit is good. Then you multiply it by grafting.”

Mangoes thrive in hot, dry conditions. Thousands of pounds of Golden Glow and Haden mangoes come from the sandy, rocky soil of Yee Or­chard, which one would not expect to support the growth of a tree. “It’s like hydroponics,” says Iwamoto, who, with his wife, Pa­tricia, manages the 20-acre fruit or­chard originally planted by brothers War­ren and Wilbert Yee in 1945. “There’s nothing there for the tree except what you give it; you control the nutrients.”

Likewise in Kealakekua, on the Big Island, mango farmers Terry and Susie Weaver planted 150 trees 15 years ago and another 300-plus trees five years later, all in lava rock. “The lateral root growth of the trees doesn’t seem to im­pair its ability to produce fruit,” says Weaver, who harvested 15,000 tons of mangoes in the 2006 growing season.

On O‘ahu, thousands of mango trees were planted by Dole Fruit in Waialua on the sunny North Shore about seven years ago. These trees were abandoned for a short while, but are now being cared for by Matsuda Fukuyama Farms and Mokulë‘ia Farms.

Mangoes typically begin flowering around February and fruit begins to form around March. Fierce March winds can wither the hope of good fruit and the reality of a bumper crop. “Wind does thin the crop,” says Iwamoto, with a little optimism. “Thinning produces fewer but larger mangoes.” April rains, too, can diminish the promise of quality mangoes, washing away young fruit or causing fruit to be watery. During the three to five months of fruit growth, Mother Nature plays a critical role.

Many mango varieties peak around May to June, especially Haden and Pirie. Keitt is a late-harvest variety and Golden Glows can have a second season during a year. While the cycle of mango fruiting is dependent on Mother Nature to a great degree, farmers can also manipulate the season by inducing flowering so that a tree can bear fruit twice in a growing cycle. This is good news for mango lovers, who can satisfy their lust almost all year long.

Mangoes are typically harvested by hand, one by one. Farmers prune their trees to a reachable height so harvesting is not too difficult. When mangoes are picked ripe and delivered a short distance, you can bet you’ll have tasty fruit, but they must be picked before fruit flies and birds have their taste.

Skin color can be deceiving, since some mangoes turn golden and red when ripe while others remain green. When a mango gives slightly to the touch, more than likely it’s ready to eat. If too firm, the sweetness may not have fully developed; too soft and a mango may have developed jelly rot, a mushy ripening near the seed that will make a finicky mango eater, like me, discard the whole fruit immediately.

Mangoes such as Haden and Keitt have staying power once they are ripe, keeping well in the refrigerator. Piries must be eaten within a day or two of their peak; a day on either side of that peak and the haunting flavor can be missed. Some varieties have tougher skins than others. Some mangoes are stringy, others are creamy and melt in your mouth. Some are firm and succulent, others are soft and so juicy that standing over the sink is the best way to eat them, as the juices run to your elbows and down your chin. Perfectly ripe and chilled is the best way to enjoy a mango.

It’s difficult to get tired of eating terrific mangoes. But the urge to include them in your culinary repertoire will certainly strike. For green mangoes, pickled, chutney and crack-seed preparations are still winners, as is Thai green mango salad. For ripe mangoes, baked items like mango muffins and bread, tarts, crisps and cobblers, cheesecakes and turnovers are perennial favorites. Mango salsa is a refreshing twist. Man­go in panna cotta, mousses, smoothies, margaritas, sorbets and ice cream is wonderful. One of my favorite preparations is warm Thai sticky rice, flavored with coconut milk and topped with perfectly ripe mango slices.

Extending the mango season by preserving mangoes is a good thought. Freezing ripe mangoes, though, is not ideal, because they become watery and mushy. Dehydrated mangoes, without a sugar coating, are especially good for their intensified flavor. Unfortunately, locally grown dried mango is difficult to find, but as farmers’ crops improve with the aging of their trees, this value-added product will no doubt surface. What­ever you do, don’t cook a ripe mango into a sauce or make it into jam: The unique sweet-tart flavor gets lost and the runny texture defies the succulence of this seductive fruit.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the fruit fly loves mangoes, too, which is why farmers in Hawai‘i can’t export them out of the state. Lucky for us who live here, we get to eat all the mangoes grown in the Islands.

Hawai‘i-born and -raised, JOAN NAMKOONG is a foodie, a free-lance writer and an organizer of farmers’ markets and food events. She is the author of Food Lover’s Guide to Honolulu, Go Home, Cook Rice, and Family Traditions in Hawai‘i.

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