A fruit for all seasons

A fruit for all seasons

Eaten bitter or sweet, the mango is an undeniable staple in Thai cuisine, served up in salads and desserts By Suthon Sukphisit

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
A fruit for all seasons
PHOTOs: Karnjana Karnjanatawe

The mango may seem at face value like any ordinary fruit. Despite being highly sought after by tourists in Thailand, the cheap, omnipresent fruit is a standard -- even monotonous -- fixture in most Thai homes.

in good taste: A mango tree bearing fresh fruit. PHOTO: Karnjana Karnjanatawe

But mangoes should not be taken for granted. The brightly coloured fruit, used for an array of purposes, has stuck around as a staple in Thai cooking for so many centuries that one should know better than to let it go to waste in their fruit basket.

Finding information about the historical importance of the mango is hard. However, what we do know is that the earliest documentation on the use of the fruit can be traced back to 1292 on the Ramkhamhaeng inscription stone. Accepted by historians as the earliest example of Thai script, the stone provides a recap of life in the Sukhothai kingdom, from the 11th to 13th century.

A close look at the text reveals a short section describing the ancient capital of Sukhothai as being filled with mango trees, alongside areca palm, tamarind and coconut trees.

King Ramkhamhaeng was said to have commissioned the planting of mango trees across town and on temple grounds to ensure densely populated areas remained lush and peaceful.

The tropical fruit has travelled as far as southwestern China, the world's second-largest producing area of mangoes, trailing India. By the banks of the Red River flowing towards Vietnam in Xinping county, Yunnan, one can find several villages home to ethnic groups. Among these are the Dai and Yi, who live in agricultural communities.

A visit to Xinping thus reveals vast acres of greenery, including rice paddies and several types of trees. Some of these trees -- you may have guessed -- are mango trees.

On a global scale, it is worth nothing that the mango stands at eighth place on the World Atlas' list of most popular fruits, squeezed behind oranges and just ahead of plantains. According to the list, around 45.2 million metric tonnes of mangoes were consumed worldwide in 2014 alone.

The rise to fame for this tropical fruit was no sudden event, as has been in the case for some other superfoods. In Thailand, the mango has made a name for itself in several ways -- in part due to its aforementioned "royal" origins.

In the olden days, no mango species was more popular in the country than Mangifera pentandra, known colloquially as the "forest mango." Small, round and covered by thick skin, the forest mango has a fairly large seed in its centre, meaning there isn't much flesh to it. However, back in the day, when it was available in abundance -- essentially all year round -- it remained a popular choice despite its less favourable qualities.

Thais of older generations used to wait until these mangoes ripened and the flesh reached a deep yellow colour. At that point, they would squeeze out the juices, gleefully sucking and hollowing out the sweet nectar from the thick skin. This phenomenon is seen by many historians as the first instance of juice consumption in Thailand.

After finishing the mango, the consumer would simply chuck the skins, with the seeds still inside them, onto the ground where they would eventually grow back into mango trees. This could very well be where the term "forest mango" originated from.

However, in 2006, forest mangoes were named on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. Locals often dismantled large mango trees to cut into wooden flooring for their homes, costing us one of nature's sweetest gifts.

Nevertheless, humans have since moved on to what is considered the forest mango's plumper, meatier cousin, the Kaew mango. Widely used in savoury dishes for its tart taste when unripe, the Kaew is featured in several Thai classics, such as pad Thai and several salads, also known as "yum".

The Kaew is also used to make a traditional Thai dessert called mamuang kuan once it ripens. With a brownish, leathery texture, the dessert involves adding sugar to the ripe mango flesh and stirring it, before setting it out in the sun to dry. You will certainly spot boxes of this dessert at most provincial souvenir shops.

As far as ripe mangoes are concerned, the current favourite is the Okrong mango. The majority of tourists in Thailand are drawn towards this mango, with its unmatched sweet flavour and smooth texture that pairs easily with a range of Thai desserts.

Among the most famous of these combinations is the much-hyped mango and sticky rice, the go-to sweet stuff for both locals and visitors to the Kingdom.

As you know by now, mangoes never really fall out of fashion in the world of Thai cooking. The fruit has reinvented itself to fit consumers' needs over time, from serving as a handy snack food to a delicious dessert.

But history has a habit of repeating itself. We are now witnessing the decline of the Kaew mango as people over-consume yet consistently fail to replant them to keep up with demand.

So if anyone plans to plant a mango tree or invest in an orchard for the fruit, they ought to opt for the Kaew variety.

Besides being able to assign higher price due to the product's rarity, growers of this variety can take pride in what they are doing -- an act of conservation to keep growing this underappreciated species of fruit.

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