poemranker ::Mango Pickle by amanda_dcosta

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Free verse № 140548

Mango Pickle

by amanda_dcosta

Member since 2005 · Posted 10 Mar 2006 · 11 comments

It’s Summer! The smell of delicious, sour, Green mangoes fill the air. Yes, the dark green mangoes With the firm white flesh. Wash ‘em, wipe ‘em, Dice ‘em, salt ‘em, A pickling we go! Heat some oil, not The coconut type Probably mustard – That will stay just right. Drop in some chilly, Turmeric, fenugreek, A pinch of asafetida should do the trick. Fold in the mangoes Add some vinegar… Yeah! That’s right, Our Mango Pickle’s here.

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mean 6.00 weighted 5.27 rank 3844 views 317 View voting details →

7 votes so far. Yours would make 8.7 votes so far

11 comments

[7] Ranger 11-Mar-06/4:25 PM Reply
This is nice, in a 'Hi ho, hi ho it's off to work we go!' kind of way - it's the sort of poem that needs communal speech. I like the semi-rhyme in stanza 2, it's subtle enough to not override the rest of the poem, while still helping the rhythm along.
[n/a] amanda_dcosta › Ranger 12-Mar-06/9:34 AM Reply
Excuse me... it's - heigh ho heigh ho it's off to work we go! my son acted in the Snow white play as the dwarf Doc, only today, at school, and those were his opening lines. What a coincidence!

Any way, thanks for the review. This was at the spur of the moment. It sort of had a rhyme feel to it, so what the heck... just submit it! hope you have fun following the recipe. By the way the ingredients are correct. Quantity is another point! :-)
[7] Ranger › amanda_dcosta 12-Mar-06/11:54 AM Reply
Weird! But your son got the good deal; Doc was always the coolest. I think I'll wait till the summer before making mango pickle though...it just doesn't feel right otherwise. At least I know where I have a good recipe now!
[7] Dovina 14-Mar-06/7:42 PM Reply
I've never eaten mango pickle, and the seasonings you mention are mostly strange to me. Chilly would be chili where I live, and mango flesh is not white, but orange, almost yellow. I remember mangos hanging from long stems on huge trees in Hawaii. We picked them with a long pole, basket on top.
[n/a] amanda_dcosta › Dovina 15-Mar-06/7:25 PM Reply
Mango pickle is deliciously pungent. Yes chilly is also chili here, though spelt both ways here. As for fenugreek and asafoetida, they are used widely in Indian foods. Makes Indian dishes unique.

And mango flesh IS white. When they're absolutely raw it's white and terribly sour. If you want to eat it raw, most often you have to with salt. When it's beginning to ripen it turns cream to pale yellow and then finally to a bright orange/yellow, and it sweetens also.

Mango, coconut, jackfruit, breadfruit, papaya and plantains/bananas are our staple fruits. So I could describe them better if needed.
[8] zodiac 16-Mar-06/8:16 AM Reply
Much of Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children is about mango pickle. You must have picked up on the same vibe.
[n/a] amanda_dcosta › zodiac 17-Mar-06/11:40 AM Reply
thank God I didn't read Midnight's children...so I can proudly say that this is my own! No one's influence or impression upon my mind. But then, great minds think alike! :-)
[7] ALChemy 16-Mar-06/12:00 PM Reply
The off rhythm doesn't seem to work well with the upbeat poem.
[n/a] amanda_dcosta › ALChemy 17-Mar-06/11:46 AM Reply
It's kinda different... appreciate that you think its an upbeat poem.
[7] ecargo 17-Mar-06/5:59 AM Reply
Hey Mandy--the NY Times had an op-ed piece on Indian mangos. It called them "the King of Fruit, Indian masterpieces that are burnished like jewels, oozing sweet, complex flavors acquired after two millenniums of painstaking grafting." Looks like they'll be headed our way as part of the new nuke/trade pact.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/opinion/12jaffrey.html Yum.
[n/a] amanda_dcosta › ecargo 17-Mar-06/11:45 AM Reply
ecargo, here too its called the 'the king of fruit'. It's pretty expensive here for a kg of mangoes, although its grown here, and trading it is going to make it even worse for us. This idea is not welcomed well by the general public out here...
Green mangoes are already in bloom.... and that's how I got the idea of the mango pickle. I love eating them with salt and chili powder. Hmmmm... my mouth's watering.