Pambansa Series # 1: Mango

( :) As the first in a series of posts about the Pinoy in PinoySpy, I thought of showcasing the Philippine National Symbols. I hope this continues until June 12, or whenever the Hobbit decides to warp the holiday.)

The Mango

The Mango, this fruit known scientifically as mangifera indica, is called the National Fruit of the Philippines. It is also claimed by India, Bagladesh, and Pakistan.

Filipino textbook writers are saying that the mango is the national fruit because of its sweetness. (Textbook writers are also known for their ability to simplify complex things and to bestow god-like qualities on heroes.) A lot of Filipino fruits are sweet! :? For all the fanfare, the attention given to the mango, it is still seasonal in this country and expensive. Very good ripe fruit can reach 70 per kilo in Metro Manila. Whoever heard of a country where the national fruit is almost a luxury food? :jawdrop: Well, the mango is a versatile one. It stands thorough cooking and baking. It can be dried as jerky or tapa. It can be pickled. It can be candied, jellied, juiced.

***

To better understand the mango, it is necessary to experience it. A fresh, succulent fruit, firm but yields to gentle pressure that assures plenty of juices to run down the cheeks while eating. To eat a mango is to take a trip to a sunny rice field, under the shade of a mango tree. A whole field of these trees in Pangasinan might be lying almost horizontal by frequent typhoons, yet they still bear fruit. Tree-ripened mangoes are matched only by a few of nature's delights. A knife is not necessary to partake of them. Just pinch off the skin at the end, then pull a long spiral down, just as you would a Selecta Cornetto. Then take luscious bites at its sides, savoring velvety texture on the tongue, completes the sensorium of a hot summer.

What is better than eating a mango like this? Eating it while submerged chest deep in water, under the summer sun.

***

A foreign writer has described the Philippine mango as the best in the region, but with a certain undecided air. He said, "when they are good, they are very very good, but when they are bad, (they smell and taste bad)". But of course. If our textbook writers would care to annotate their descriptions of the fruit, they might write it off as displaying the characteristic of the Filipino male: malambing (sweet), yet when provoked, has the ability to run amok, to kill for revenge (self, family and manhood), to lie-cheat-steal. The last one is true yet it is not clear how the Filipino is provoked.

Another one writes of having "poison ivy" at the corners of the lips when eating a mango straigt from the seed. Well, Filipinos do it everytime yet we don't complain about it. This writer also cautions readers to use gloves while handling chili peppers... Delicate skin huh?

***

This style of serving a mango is called a "hedgehog."

__________________________

Inggit sa long hair ko.