[HN Gopher] India's Alphonso mangoes are virtually impossible to...
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India's Alphonso mangoes are virtually impossible to find in
America (2018)
Author : shubhamjain
Score : 68 points
Date : 2023-05-16 09:13 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.vice.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.vice.com)
| PopAlongKid wrote:
| I wonder how these differ from the Mexican Ataulfo? It is not
| fibrous, has the yellow/orange color, nice and sweet in my
| experience, about $1.50 each in SF Bay Area grocery stores.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataulfo_(mango)
| triceratops wrote:
| It's like listening to a bootleg recording of a tribute act of
| your favorite band.
| fooker wrote:
| Alphonso is one of the least flavorful varieties on mango.
|
| The fame comes from the fact that it is one of the few which can
| stay edible for more than a few days of storage and transport,
| making it the only variety ever exported at scale.
|
| Some better ones are Himsagar, Langra, Sindhri, Dasheri. Try to
| find these when you are traveling in India (and neighbors).
| MichaelZuo wrote:
| > The fame comes from the fact that it is one of the few which
| can stay edible for more than a few days of storage and
| transport, making it the only variety ever exported at scale
|
| Is that true even for refrigerated transport?
| fooker wrote:
| Yes
| bhaskara2 wrote:
| For some reason lots of popular Indian products which india has
| the potential to supply are banned in USA for one reason or the
| other. For example, mustard oil and ghee in culinary usage.
| kevviiinn wrote:
| You can buy mustard oil but without the same erucic acid
| content. Also ghee is definitely available at the Indian shops
| I've been to? Not sure where you're getting your info from
| sand500 wrote:
| Ghee is available in American grocery store too.
| inferiorhuman wrote:
| You can get ghee at Trader Joe's of all places.
| rajamaka wrote:
| Walmart sells ghee and mustard oil
| BuzzDegen wrote:
| King is always hard to get haha
| vsskanth wrote:
| They are not as of 2023. I just got Indian Alphonsos for $50 a
| box. You have to reserve it in advance. They come through air
| cargo.
| ozfive wrote:
| I imported them from India for my wife one season because she was
| very home-sick.
| langfan wrote:
| For a different take on mangoes:
|
| Check out the Totapuri and Rajapuri varieties. Can be eaten ripe
| too, and are middling good that way. But what I came here to say
| is, we as kids used to eat them raw to semi-ripe, sliced into
| just a few large pieces, and with salt to taste, on lazy summer
| afternoons, while reading a book or comic. And for some reason
| you could eat a lot without getting a stomach upset. They had a
| tangy mildly sour and mildly sweet taste, that did not pall, even
| on eating large amounts. :)
| nine_zeros wrote:
| If you haven't had this mango, I urge you to have it. It is truly
| one of those fruits that can replace any dessert.
| squokko wrote:
| Also worth stating that it isn't really any less bad for you
| than a dessert given how much sugar is in it.
| brailsafe wrote:
| Isn't that a fairly narrow definition of what makes food bad?
| frou_dh wrote:
| One Weird Trick -based nutrition (Doctors Hate Him)
| null_flavour wrote:
| Seconded.
|
| I live in a country which fortunately gets Alphonso mangoes
| from India. On the few occasions I have offered it to
| uninitiated guests and colleagues (making sure they aren't
| allergic first), the reaction has been a wide eyed disbelief of
| how good this variety is. Of course there are other varieties
| that are good (Langda is a close second).
|
| If you ever get a box at home, unless rules are set and
| respected, it quickly becomes a free for all and people who
| hate welding a knife or peeling a fruit quickly become adept at
| it.
|
| It is that good.
|
| On a separate note: we live in interesting times where I can
| almost have a culinary-credo like I want to try the amazing
| food each place has to offer. Someone needs to put a list of
| these things - fruits, dishes, what have you and we need a
| serious conversation about how some of us can sample them from
| far away.
| e15ctr0n wrote:
| Start with this list
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_taste and then explore
| the entire Wikipedia portal on food
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Food and drink
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Drink .
| known wrote:
| [dead]
| albert_e wrote:
| I searched for "Banganapalli" / "Banginapalli" -- and see zero
| mentions in this thread (!) so far. Here's fixing that :)
|
| One of the most popular varieties of Mango from southern part of
| India.
| innagadadavida wrote:
| Where I grew up, Raspuri and Malgova is something we used to
| have every summer. They are impossible to find in many parts of
| India as well and they have an awesome flavor.
| omnicognate wrote:
| Alphonso aren't the be all and end all. They are gorgeous but
| I've had other varieties that are just as nice if not nicer. Now
| if I could just remember what they were called...
| omnicognate wrote:
| Dasheri is one.
| dirtyid wrote:
| Spectacular mango, should be grown in more places.
| AITree wrote:
| it may require some effort and patience to find Alphonso mangoes
| in America, it is not entirely impossible.
| e15ctr0n wrote:
| There's a great podcast episode on the Gastropod that discusses
| this issue: Mango Mania: How the American Mango Lost its Flavor
| --and How it Might Just Get it Back (2018)
| https://gastropod.com/mango-mania-how-the-american-mango-los...
|
| The Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, Florida
| (mentioned in the podcast episode) has been hosting a Mango
| Festival for nearly 30 years.
| https://fairchildgarden.org/events/mango-festival/
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Tropical_Botanic_Gar...
| [deleted]
| vivegi wrote:
| Try Malgova (malgoa, malgoba) variety. It is a Southern India
| special variety.
|
| Pulpy, meaty and sweet. Has a distinctive taste.
|
| Comedian Romesh Ranganathan did a bit on Alphonso mangoes and
| Indians, I think it streams on Netflix.
|
| Just my opinion that the Alphonso is overrated.
| pkphilip wrote:
| Malgova mangoes - I have a whole lot of them being naturally
| ripened a few feet from where I am tying this out
| eastern wrote:
| Agree 100%.
|
| Alphonsos are HUGELY over-rated and that's actually a common
| opinion in India.
|
| I feel they're basically fake mangoes meant for exporting at
| high prices to foreigners who have no clue what a mango should
| actually taste like. That weird jelly-like pulp is actually
| repulsive if you're used to a Chausa or a Langda or so many
| other great mangoes.
| givemeethekeys wrote:
| Unrelated, but if you're going to go the deep end on Indian, and
| other Asian fruits, I recommend also trying:
|
| - Rambutan (similar to lychees)
|
| - Custard apple (haven't seen it, but I've heard it can be found)
|
| - Vietnamese Durian (tastes like a milkshake, and I couldn't
| smell the stinky smell..)
|
| - Guava (they're not very sweet but are very flavorful)
|
| - Sapota (aka Chiku) - the best fruit milkshakes I've had were
| chiku shakes.
|
| Finally, if these are hard to come by and you can't travel, make
| the most of your local fruits: there are some incredible apples,
| blackberries, red raspberries, blue berries in the US that are
| hard to find in other parts of the world.
| schrectacular wrote:
| My absolute favorite was not on your list: mangosteen!
| Available in the US at some Asian groceries but so expensive
| that I usually can't stomach it.
| Cerium wrote:
| In the US they are expensive and usually bad.
| carlmr wrote:
| Exactly, discovered that one on Indonesia. Amazing taste. I'd
| surmise if you like lychee you probably will like this, too.
| Kaijo wrote:
| These are all common, obvious fruits, several of which are not
| even from Asia originally. I feel someone speaking from "the
| deep end" would have more esoteric recommendations but also
| very strong preferences about what particular cultivars to seek
| out -- in each case, but especially for durian, where it's
| almost like each of its hundreds of named varieties can have
| its own cult following -- when and where to get them, how they
| should be harvested, how prime individual specimens should be
| selected, etc. Guava not very sweet? You just haven't had the
| right variety of guava fully in season. And so on.
| langfan wrote:
| Yes. For a simple example, guava with pink flesh inside is
| very different in taste from the white flesh ones.
| ido wrote:
| Aside from Guava I knew none of the fruits the OP mentioned,
| just as a side-note. I think you may be overestimating how
| common and obvious these are for people not from Asia.
| xarope wrote:
| OMG, durian, it's like a entire cult following, golden
| phoenix, sultan (d24), black gold, mountain cat, red prawn,
| black pearl, king of kings...
|
| Speaking of cult following, I once tried a durian that tasted
| rotten, so I warned my friends accordingly, one who promptly
| grabbed them and started smacking their lips, going "this is
| the good stuff". Found out it was the XO variant, which is
| supposed to taste like it's fermented. Who would've thunk.
| umeshunni wrote:
| FYI -
|
| Sapotas are from Mexico (Yucatan)
|
| Custard apples are from the West Indies
|
| Guavas are from Mexico (and are often grown in backyards even
| here in California)
| pvaldes wrote:
| Paw Paw would be the best local replacement for tropical flavor
| xarope wrote:
| I'll add, dragonfruit. The typical purple one has a very mild
| taste (exceedingly mild to the point of tastelessness), but the
| yellow ones are really sweet.
| ryzvonusef wrote:
| A similar thread on Mangoes from two years ago:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28166646
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| I saw a box of Indian mangos at the local Indian grocery store
| (the name is "cash and carry" but I don't believe they're a
| chain). $80/box. The Mexican mangos were $20/box. The Indian ones
| definitely were air cargoed at that price.
| [deleted]
| Sai_ wrote:
| Having lived in the States and only eaten mexican mangoes for
| years, returning to India and eating Alphonso and other Indian
| mangoes quickly showed me what I was missing.
|
| Don't know if that epiphany is worth a 4x price difference but
| it's not nothing.
| abc_lisper wrote:
| In Bay Area I paid $30 for box a month ago
| xarope wrote:
| How about the ice cream mango? I thought it was Indian origin
| too, but wiki says its from Trinidad and Tobago?
| pkphilip wrote:
| Right now I have a huge selection of Alphonsos lying on a bed of
| hay as it is being naturally ripened along with Malgova mangoes.
| I will be getting Imam Pasand in a couple of days. For those in
| the know, Imam Pasand is considered even better than Alphonsos -
| especially those sourced from a specific part of Tamil Nadu in
| India.
|
| NOTE: I work with natural and organic farmers in India to try and
| find a market for their produce.
|
| Believe me when I say this - naturally ripened mangoes are on a
| different level altogether when it comes to taste. What you get
| overseas is usually not naturally ripened as the amount of
| wastage is usually quite high with naturally ripened mangoes.
| throwaway2729 wrote:
| Had a Rumani mango tree at home while growing up. Small,
| extremely juice mangos. Ate hundreds every season. Nothing else
| comes close.
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| I was lucky to grow up in a tropical seaside city in Mexico.
| Mangoes and papayas were everywhere. Papayas never went to
| waste, but mangoes were almost a plague, old trees will drop
| kilos of ripened mangoes every day, and some people had several
| trees in their backyard.
|
| Our house didn't have a tree, but you could take a bag and just
| walk around the neighborhood, because people put fresh mangoes
| on their fences for others to take for free before they
| spoiled. Naturally ripened mangoes are indeed on a different
| level, but they last so little before fermenting because
| they're very sweet.
| jimsimmons wrote:
| This. It's like people in the west have never eaten real
| mangoes and only know of it via artificial flavour.
|
| I'll also mention Raspuri which is my favourite kind. As the
| name suggests it's very juicy
| akiselev wrote:
| Most people in the west _haven't_ eaten real mangoes. The US
| and Europe are just too far away to get access to proper
| tropical fruit because it spoils so fast. We get the
| varieties that travel well which are almost universally the
| worst tasting (fewer sugars for bacteria to eat and more
| fiber and cellulose filler). So ironically, yeah, synthetic
| flavors are sometimes the only place we get certain flavors -
| like the artificial banana flavor that's based on the Gros
| Michel that preceded the cavendish.
|
| Here in the US, due to industrialization, I struggle to find
| good fruit and vegetables in general, let alone tropical.
| They're all picked too soon, travel too far, and have barely
| any flavor compared to home grown - and I'm in California!
| There's a few specialized tropical fruit growers in Florida
| but it's not even legal to ship much of that stuff here
| carlmr wrote:
| Isn't this also down to different types of Mango being grown
| in Brazil than in India?
|
| The small yellow Indian mangoes that are exported also taste
| very different from the exported big green-red Brazilian
| mangoes.
|
| So the export might have to do with it, but I think it's the
| type of mango that makes the difference.
|
| I find Indian mangoes much better personally, even if
| exported, although when traveling in India they were even
| better.
| icemelt8 wrote:
| Everytime I read about these mangoes as king I get frustrated, as
| the world hasn't tasted Pakistani mangoes, if possible find
| Sindri or Chaunsa mango from Pakistan from your local market,
| those are completely next level.
| fooker wrote:
| >Sindri or Chaunsa
|
| These are available through most of the Indian subcontinent,
| albeit sometimes with different names.
|
| I agree that these are much better than Alphonso. Also try
| Himsagar and Langra!
| Sai_ wrote:
| I think Sindri and Chaunsa are also available in India (Indian
| here) but I personally think Alphonsos are much richer in taste
| and texture.
|
| Ymmv.
|
| Edit - maybe I'm biased because Alphonsos are pricier so the
| palate thinks it's getting something better much like pricey
| wine vs cheap wine which are basically the same but are
| perceived differently.
| kashif wrote:
| The best mango is Langda - end of discussion.
| nelblu wrote:
| I agree! I never thought Alphonsos were the best, Langda
| all the way!
| jitendrac wrote:
| I like the Kesar best. I am from South-Gujarat where Kesar,
| Alphonso(Hafus/afus) and Langda are easily available in
| local market. I will always choose kesar regardless the
| price.
| jimsimmons wrote:
| Badami is highest quality followed by Raspuri imo. Former
| for milkshakes and later for raw eating. Everything else
| is noise ;)
| eklavya wrote:
| That mango capsule has paper thin peel and so much pulp,
| soooo goood.
| jfk13 wrote:
| Yes! To me, Sindhri is in a class of its own. No mango I had in
| India could ever match the Queen of Mangoes from Mirpurkhas at
| the height of the season.
| billfruit wrote:
| How does Tommy Atkins compare with the mangoes from Asia?
| carlmr wrote:
| Bigger, harder, more sour, less sweet, less flavorful.
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