Jaw Dropping Produce
Today I went to the market with Laura. Lately, I have been craving Asian foods and wanted to make some soups. Before I went to the big "meat house" (where there are no less than 100 different butchers) I stopped by the Vietnamese store and my jaw dropped. See photos below.
This is a juicy, super ripe piece of a Philippine mango. There is not much else on earth that compares to it and it runs circles around the mangos that I usually buy. I have never seen them in Torino before and had to have one. In the states they are often called champagne mangos.
This is a fruit of my childhood, my eyes popped when I saw them nestled gently in a crate with packing paper wrapped around each one. They were ripe and sweet but not perfectly tree ripened like I used to eat on Guam. Back at home, if the fruits were not 100 percent ripe we placed them in a large vat of rice to ripen them further. Here I just placed them in paper bag and am hoping for the best. This is a very popular fruit in tropical climates. Read more about them here, here and here.
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posted by Gia-Gina @ 8:53:00 AM
9 Comments:
There is a market here that I can get both types of mangoes (the red ones and the yellow ones). But ATES! Oh, I love ates. I about made myself sick on them when I visited Guam in August. SOOOO LUCKY!
From one of your links:
Toxicity
The seeds are acrid and poisonous. Bark, leaves and seeds contain the alkaloid, anonaine. Six other aporphine alkaloids have been isolated from the leaves and stems: corydine, roemerine, norcorydine, norisocarydine, isocorydine and glaucine. Aporphine, norlaureline and dienone may be present also. Powdered seeds, also pounded dried fruits serve as fish poison and insecticides in India. A paste of the seed powder has been applied to the head to kill lice but must be kept away from the eyes as it is highly irritant and can cause blindness. If applied to the uterus, it induces abortion. Heat-extracted oil from the seeds has been employed against agricultural pests. Studies have shown the ether extract of the seeds to have no residual toxicity after 2 days. High concentrations are potent for 2 days and weaken steadily, all activity being lost after 8 days. In Mexico, the leaves are rubbed on floors and put in hen's nests to repel lice.
Who knew we flirted so closely with disaster?
It's not as if we broke open the seeds. They were simply spat out. BTW, how do you suppose you apply the paste made from the seeds to your uterus?
the mango looks DELICIOUS!
-Jackie
Looks so tasty and perfectly ripe!
the philippine mangoes always sell well here; Pay-Less has them in pretty often.
glad you were able to find sweetsop ... but no breadfruit? ;)
Jaw dropping indeed! Damn that mango is humungous!
I was so glad to be able to find things that really reminded me to home and of my family. This shop has new produce every Thursday and they even had a fresh durien. I think the DH would kill me if I brought it some tho'.
The 2nd fruit I know as custard apples...and I love them too - now I'm craving them :D
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