India Part 4: Mango Mania

In America, you can go to the average grocery store find quite a number of apple varieties: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Gala, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Rome, McIntosh… the list continues. India, lacking America’s cool autumns, does not grow many apples, and only Red Delicious and Granny Smith are for sale in grocery stores (these from New Zealand even though the fruitwala at the store called them “Washingtons”). What India does have is an amazing variety of mangoes. There are so many mangos in India in fact, that the Hindi word for mango, aam, also means common. Here are some of the ones I have tried so far, although supposedly there are three or four more famous common Indian varietals.

Selected Mangos/P. Salemme

• Langra- The fruitwala said this variety was the sweetest of the bunch, and he was right. Super soft and sweet. Had the most yielding pale yellow flesh of any mango so far with the consistency of a baked sweet potato.
• Safeda – this golden mango is the same color on the inside and outside. Easily bruised, the most striking feature of this variety was overwhelming juiciness. The flesh was soft and sweet, but overall this was mango was more of a mess than a snack.
• Dusheri – This mango is woody on the outside and soft on the inside. Nice flavor with some tart notes of conifer. Not too juicy. A pretty average mango actually.
• Hamam – Peeled, this mango has the same sunshine yellow of most common mangos. But cut deeper into this fruit, and the flesh becomes very pale, to the level of a banana’s interior. Hamam mangos are firm throughout and not overly juicy. The flavor is very pleasant although a little starchy, as if one of its great-great-great grandparents was a potato.
• Kesar – The first thing you notice is the color of the mango flesh: the bright orange of Halloween pumpkins. The texture is exceedingly smooth, like slicing through a banana with a moderate degree of juiciness. The flavor is surprisingly mild yet full, with a pleasant sweetness that lingers on the roof of your mouth. I felt like a king while eating this mango.

Hopefully I will continue to add to this topic in the near future, potentially with a visit to the International Mango Festival in Dilli Haat on July 2. Stay tuned!