How to Eat a Mango
Today I really enjoyed eating a mango after a long time! The reason is that I ate it whole, and not skinned and cut up into neat cubes, served in a bowl with a spoon....yeah...when you eat a mango, you must eat it "wild" It definitely tastes divine that way!
Many many years ago, when I was a little kid, I remember sitting down and watching my grandmother eat a mango, every single day, when mangoes were in season. It was a ritual of sorts with her. She would eat it whole and wild and that evoked a certain joy and mystery even for the little witness - me! I was fascinated to see how she would devour it whole, with a deftness that came with practice and enjoying the moment fully. She reminded me of a little squirrel enjoying a fruit from the tree.
She would keep one mango for dessert after every meal of the day. She would wash it thoroughly and keep it in a plate next to her, to eat after her meal. When she was ready, she would hold it in her hand, bite off a tiny part of the skin to make a hole in the fleshy fruit. She would then suck on the fruit through that hole, every now and then squeezing and pressing down the sides with the same hand, to get the juice and the flesh to move up slowly near the hole she had made. I still remember the joy on her face, and the enjoyment, almost a self-forgetting, when she ate a mango like this! She would often close her eyes, to probably get into the experience more completely. She would be totally lost to everything else around her. And that was how she patiently finished the entire fruit...just through that little hole. It was an amazing experience for me to watch her ! And she never got her hands messy after all that. If by chance some of the juice trickled down her palms and hand, she would gently lick it all up in one stroke of her tongue!
When she got down to the very end of the fruit, she would tear the skin open with her mouth, and get the seed out. She would then lick on the seed and strip it of all its flesh, until it was smooth and bald. Every part of the skin would be stripped of the tiniest bit of flesh, She would then wash the seed, dry it in the sun for a few days, and then plant it diligently, every single time, in the hope that one of those would become a tree. And that did happen! Two of the many seeds, sprouted and grew into two mango trees (Alphonso), that we had to leave behind for someone else to enjoy, as we had to move house
Today, as I ate a mango like she used to, I remembered her fondly. I also remembered how we were made to sit and eat mangoes as little kids, in our petticoats and sometimes even without that, simply because they didn't want us to get all messy and spoil our clothes!
Eating mangoes is fun when it is wild!
Wild= free = joy unlimited!
Try it and see for yourself
Today I really enjoyed eating a mango after a long time! The reason is that I ate it whole, and not skinned and cut up into neat cubes, served in a bowl with a spoon....yeah...when you eat a mango, you must eat it "wild" It definitely tastes divine that way!
Many many years ago, when I was a little kid, I remember sitting down and watching my grandmother eat a mango, every single day, when mangoes were in season. It was a ritual of sorts with her. She would eat it whole and wild and that evoked a certain joy and mystery even for the little witness - me! I was fascinated to see how she would devour it whole, with a deftness that came with practice and enjoying the moment fully. She reminded me of a little squirrel enjoying a fruit from the tree.
She would keep one mango for dessert after every meal of the day. She would wash it thoroughly and keep it in a plate next to her, to eat after her meal. When she was ready, she would hold it in her hand, bite off a tiny part of the skin to make a hole in the fleshy fruit. She would then suck on the fruit through that hole, every now and then squeezing and pressing down the sides with the same hand, to get the juice and the flesh to move up slowly near the hole she had made. I still remember the joy on her face, and the enjoyment, almost a self-forgetting, when she ate a mango like this! She would often close her eyes, to probably get into the experience more completely. She would be totally lost to everything else around her. And that was how she patiently finished the entire fruit...just through that little hole. It was an amazing experience for me to watch her ! And she never got her hands messy after all that. If by chance some of the juice trickled down her palms and hand, she would gently lick it all up in one stroke of her tongue!
When she got down to the very end of the fruit, she would tear the skin open with her mouth, and get the seed out. She would then lick on the seed and strip it of all its flesh, until it was smooth and bald. Every part of the skin would be stripped of the tiniest bit of flesh, She would then wash the seed, dry it in the sun for a few days, and then plant it diligently, every single time, in the hope that one of those would become a tree. And that did happen! Two of the many seeds, sprouted and grew into two mango trees (Alphonso), that we had to leave behind for someone else to enjoy, as we had to move house
Today, as I ate a mango like she used to, I remembered her fondly. I also remembered how we were made to sit and eat mangoes as little kids, in our petticoats and sometimes even without that, simply because they didn't want us to get all messy and spoil our clothes!
Eating mangoes is fun when it is wild!
Wild= free = joy unlimited!
Try it and see for yourself
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