April, May, and June are mango season here. Everybody who grows them at home brings them into the office or to their friends before the fruit gets too ripe. The coolest thing is that there are over a hundred different species grown and sold here in Thailand. I’ve probably tried about a third of them. To date, the best kind I’ve had are small ones that people grow in their backyards and sell at weekend fresh markets, known generically as mamuang noi (small mango). They have the perfect blend of sweet, tart, and wild flavors, and are at once slightly chewy yet soft.
Yeah. Our Costco and 99 Ranch Market mangoes might be okay-ish, but I always remember the absolute deliciousness of a home gardener’s mango in Hawaii, highly coveted as a prized omiage, and definitely “not for sale!”