CORNUCOPIA

With a range of strains and types to be eaten both ripe or unripe, it’s no wonder mangoes are a Thai favourite

Whether you like them ripe and juicy with sticky rice and coconut milk or green and crunchy, mangoes are always in demand.

One of the pleasures of having a home with a yard is the ability to cultivate a garden and plant some trees. For most Thais, one of the first trees they will go for is a mango tree. It is leafy and shady, bears delicious fruit and requires little care. The choice of which type of mango it will be depends on personal or family preference.

The Thai love of mangoes is an ancient one. The Ramkhamhaeng Stone Inscriptions at Sukhothai that King Ramkhamhaeng ordered to be carved in 1361AD record that the king had an orchard of mango trees planted as a place to relax, and later had a Buddhist temple built called Wat Pa Mamuang (Mango Forest Temple). The implication is that Thais were familiar with mangoes since long before that.

Early memories of most people born in provincial homes with gardens will be of the mango trees growing there. Some of these may have appeared there naturally or may have been planted by ancestors. Farming usually requires a piece of land for threshing harvested rice to separate the grains. This area should be cool and shady all day, and is ideal if it is shielded from the sun by mango trees. The older the trees get, the bigger and shadier they become.

One of the oldest strains of mango, one that people in provincial areas often call mamuang

paa (wild mango), isn’t very useful as food because the fruit, which are small and round, have big seeds and very little edible pulp. When it is fully ripe the taste is a combination of sour and sweet. The best way to eat them is to squeeze them by hand until the pulp inside is thoroughly mashed, then pierce one of the ends and suck the juice directly into the mouth. This is the way Thais ate mangoes in the past.

Mamuang paa trees are very common in the countryside and can easily be cut down with a long, two-man saw. The tough wood makes good flooring for houses.

There are more than 50 kinds of mango in Thailand. Many of them are on their way to being forgotten, like the mamuang talab naak, the mamuang kralon and the mamuang hua

chang. The kralon type is common and prolific with fruit. It is sour when eaten unripe but becomes sweet as it ripens. Fruit that aren’t eaten fresh can be made into the sweet called mamuang kuan by chopping the pulp and simmering it together with sugar, then forming it into thin, round sheets that are set out in the sun on woven bamboo trays to dry before they are eaten or sold.

The fruits of the mamuang kaew are small and sour, and don’t look especially choice, but actually they are useful and valuable. The trees produce fruit all year and these are especially good when pickled. Women prefer these pickled mangoes to other kinds of pickled fruit.

Mamuang kaew, which are often called mamuang prio, or “sour mango”, are useful as an ingredient in different kinds of food. They are good when shredded and scattered on top of phat Thai, and can be made into a

tom yam with plaa krawp (crispy dried fish). Mamuang kaew can also be included in yam dishes like yam khai maengdaa thalay kap mamuang dip (made with horseshoe crab eggs), yam plaa salit yang (made with a grilled

local fish), yam plaa duke fuu (with deep-fried

teased catfish meat) and yam samlee phao (made with grilled cotton fish).

Thais eat both ripe and unripe mangoes. The best-known kinds for eating unripe are mamuang man, mamuang raet and mamuang

khio sawuy. Mamuang man have a slightly nutty taste and a crunchy texture. The raet variety is also nutty, but also slightly sour and goes well with the condiment called nam plaa

waan, made from fish sauce simmered with tamarind water and sugar and with dried shrimp, sliced shallots and phrik khee nuu (birds-eye chilli) added. Once you start eating raet mangoes with nam plaa waan, there is no stopping.

Mamuang khio sawuy that are ripe with the ends beginning to turn yellow are another type that has a taste that also combines nuttiness and sweetness, and once again the texture is crunchy. It is grown to be sold at this stage of ripeness, and with mamuang man, mamuang raet has a wide popularity that shows no signs of waning.

The most famous way of eating ripe mangoes, especially during the hot season, is as khao niomamuang (mango with sticky rice). Mangoes and khao nio moon (sticky rice mixed with coconut cream, sugar and salt) are an inseparable duo that suit each other perfectly. In the past, only the okrong variety of mango was used to make it. Okrong are delicious when ripe, fragrant and sweet with a touch of sourness. But many people were not fond of them because of their sour accent and the fibrous texture of the pulp.

Another variety of mango, nam dawk mai, came in to replace them and eclipsed their popularity. The nam dawk mai fruit are big and very sweet, with a delicate texture, but the preference for them turned out not be a permanent thing. These days people are starting to turn back to okrong mangoes to eat with their sticky rice because they simply go better with khao nio moon. But there is a problem. During the years when the preference was for nam dawk mai, farmers took out their okrong trees and replaced them with nam dawk mai. Another reason for the switch was that overseas Chinese liked the nam dawk mai better so they fetched a better price on the export market.

Today okrong mangoes have become expensive and hard to find. In response, farmers are growing them again, creating another reversal in mango cultivation.

So the mango, a favourite with Thais right from their beginnings, is a fruit of many faces. There is a range of strains and types, each with its own virtues. They can be eaten ripe or unripe, are available all year round, and can be enjoyed with any meal. Mangoes can be part of a good breakfast, can be eaten with sticky rice as a dessert, will be finished off quickly when served as a party treat, and are irresistible when eaten unripe with nam plaa waan. It is a fruit for all times and all seasons.