Mangoes goes ..gone
King amongst the fruits,God created Mango with all his heart
For us poor mortals the taste buds ,the smell ,the sight are all enhanced with arrival of this delicious fruit.
.To Mumbaikar there is another advantage because we have Hapus or Alphanso mango .
You have to be a Mumbaikar to understand ,this love for Hapus .The Portugese bought this to India .Here, along the west coast we cultivated it , and since then it has remained exclusive to this region .Ratngiri and Devgad Hapus are the best of all.
It is perfect in shape , the skin semi transulant with shades of fading green into brighter yellow and then growing into lovely shade of orange. The pulp is firm and can be cut neatly in cubes so you can ,,relish eating it with fork,like a Sahib .
Hapus is loved by Mumbaikar and many die hard ,will only eat Hapus .
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I remember once travelling in remote Spiti,in Himachal Pradesh ,my husband was down with terrible cold and could not attend a meeting with District Collector ,so as he send a note of regrate,and he send six precious Hapus mangoes .The collectors wife , a Mumbaikar yelled with joy when she saw the mangoes ,and came running to meet my husband knowing that it can be only a Mumbaikar who could get Hapus.
Yet there are many more variety of mangoes that have delighted me through out my life .
I recall my childhood days in Goa it is Mankurad this has a heady fragrance and is very juicy and the seed has lot of fine fibre( hair)on it , as in one tiny room all the mangoes were laid out covered between dry straw grass. As you entered the house smell of mango ripening mixed with smell of grass , rushed into your nostrils almost choking you wth joy .
You have to have experience to choose the ripe mangoes from the lot ,and one can only observe it and learn. I loved every moment of this .Morning time the mangoes were cut into pieces for all to eat at breakfast .
At lunch it was Aamrus ,the juice rather pulp of mango ,now this was a task because we were about ten odd children of various ages and that many adults .The huge vessels would come out and three female servants would sit down to squeeze out the juice .One washed the mangoes thoughraly , other softened it and squeezed out the juice and third one strained it .The lunch was fried golden poorie and Aamras of course being in Goa rest of the famous fish dishes also accompanied in the menu.
Then we have Payri which has very watery pulp and again is good to make into Aamras .
Then we have Rajapuri , this is favourite of all house wives because the raw Rajapuri is cut into pieces and turned into delicious pickles.Gujratis love this because the sweet and sour Chundo is made from this .My grand mother used to make mouth-watering jam from ripe Totapuri mangoes ,these were very round in shape , green skin but bright orange and very sweet thick pulp inside. One strong servant woman would sit whole day long stirring the mango juice ,in a large vessel on a wood fire chulla.
This jam then was divided between all the cousins to be taken to Mumbai .The children always hovered around the Mango trees ,so Mama took us at the back yard where , we could pick up, or with a very long bamboo with hook pluck the mangoes ourselves.
This was a great fun and joy to us , not only we enjoyed gathering the small mangoes but we made our own corner with grass bed and laid the mangoes on it to ripen .These are junglie mangoes , Grand 'mother made sweet and sour curry called saasav with these .
And also the golden prawn curry .But greatest pleasure to all of us was when these tiny mangoes ripened Mama put it in the centre, we could make a hole and suck the mango juice .The juice would spill on our clothes ,our faces would be smeared with mango juice
We sucked the juice we laughed a teach other and enjoyed ourselves to the last drop of mango .Now with age that is far gone and with arrival of monsoon gone are Mangoes ,till they will return next year .
Really the mango is the king of fruits having all 1000 variety.The botonical name being ”Mangi fera indica” means mango fruit(fera/fal) from india.The famous variety are dashahari.langada.chausa,malda.krishan bhog, gulab kash,neelam,safeda alpanso ,begampally,kesar,bambaiya and lot of other variety having different taste ,size, colour ,smell.Two main
types are 1.Bijoo.2 kalmi.The one eaten by sucking juice & the other consuming pulp
NICE WRITE-UP ON A VERY TASTY N ENJOYABLE FRUIT .BUT I WOULD INVITE YOU TO OUR ORCHARDS IN ANDHRA PRADESH”S EAST GODAVARI DISTRICT - FOR REAL,FRESH AND ORIGINAL MANGOES[FRUITS AS ALSO RAW ONES FIT FOR AUTHENTIC PICKLES].MANGOES ARE DIVINE INDEED.
I like and follow mangoes to the end, from the beginning. So while it is haapus since beginning of the season (and I hate the initial days when you pay more than 100 bucks for 1 mango and they are so bad in taste, ripened artificially), there are others like Kesar (from gujrat) during the peak season and LANGADA as rains start. But to me, the best comes at the end- the CHAUSA variety. This variety is an acquired taste as I ate it for the first time at a friend’’s place and became a fan instantneously! So guys, while haapus and other mangoes are long gone, you can continue to enjoy the Chausa, very juicy and very pulpy and the sweetness is amazing- it has fibres too but really tasty fruit. My view, if the haapus is the queen of mangoes, CHAUSA is king of mangoes (you know ladies have to be first!). Missed to mention Bambai, a variety prevalent in bihar and very similar in taste and smell and sizes to haapus. Someone must would have taken sapplings from mumbai and hence the name.
Even we gujjus r madly in love with mangoes n esp Hapus!
Dear Noanee.. Jai Maharashtra..Jai Bharat Mata..
..Very Nice informative blog..mouthwatering too..Well i want to write some more but first i wud search for hapus mangoes..As i like to rate blogs so my rating..Nine out of Ten..i.e.Excellent Post..So keep ur keyboard busy to produce such excellent Writeups..Bby Shabbakhair Shayonara..
really bought back memories ..we used to throw stones and eat up the unripe ones with salt and chilli…ummmmmm….
wonderful…a really yummy post…. and very informative too!
very nice
Bahut hi swdishta kikha hai aapne…Thanks
Mmmmmm………..deli……ci……ous……..mmmmmmouth………..waterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring………..:-)))))))))))))))))
realy Mango is the king of fruits.U have not noted about Kesar Mango of Junagdh Guj.
yeah as a kid visiting bombay (late 70s),and my aunt who lived in santa cruz 3 things i remember are the apoos,the pomfret,and chitrahaar was all the rage then.But a true connoiseur of mangoes would appreciate the dusheri.Down south the mallika variety is quite popular,it is a hybrid of neelam(root)and Dusheri.
Very nice
And then we have something called Maldah aam in East India (UP/Bihar side) and no other mango can match it too 
Then there is Dashahri aam, langda aam, all different varieties with different properties and tastes. I know Mumbai is crazy about Alphanso… We had one visitor coming from some other country and the president gifted him a box of mangoes. He shamelessly asked: is this alphanso mango? I want only alphanso and no other! Boss was smart - he said, “These are mangoes from our own gardens in Gujarat, without any in pesticides and all… These are good!” But later on, I got to know that the shameless foreigner didn”t agree and the boss sent a person to market to buy alphanso mangoes… So much for a particular taste and smell! 
Very nice post…(Rahul)
It reminded of tht ad … AaaaaaAaaaammmmm …
Very informative.
Absolute nostaligia re-created. I can smell the mangoes in your writing