It’s that time again in Miami. Out with the pastel nail
polish, in with the dark. Light nail polish is fine in the summer all over the
country, but not in Miami, when you have to peel and slice mangoes—mangoes turn
nail polish bright orange. Wear gloves, you say. Not gonna happen—I like to
lick my fingers.
This year we have a bumper crop. The little ones that shall
remain nameless because we have no idea what to call them are sweet, string free,
and best eaten right off the tree. Thanks to the trusty Vita-Mix, we can make
ice cream/freezes out of them, but how much can you drink? We still have some
in the freezer in the garage from last year. Those we just threw in without
even bothering to cut them.
The big ones called springfels, now that’s another story.
They are as big as papayas. I pity the person who walks under the tree when one
drops off—some of them weigh as much as three pounds. Rather than don a helmet
for protection I pick them green and try to wait until they ripen to cut them …but…I
cut one too soon, so I ended up with a very green and sort of sour mango, all
sliced up and stored in the refrigerator.
Since the springfels is rather rare, I couldn’t bring myself
to toss the offensive slices so I concluded that they might make a decent slaw.
I grated the slices and, rather than sugar, I added a few overripe small
mangoes that I had picked yesterday. Along with some salt, a splash of key lime
juice and a heaping spoonful of fresh salsa, I ended up with a bowl of slaw
that I can’t stop eating.
Then my California daughter happened to call to describe
yesterday’s meal. She just doesn’t understand that California tomatoes are so
superior to the tasteless stuff that they try to pass off as vine-ripened here
in Florida, that I can’t even listen to her when she tells me about her dinners.
No, I couldn’t shut her up. Her moussaka was made with fresh
tomatoes, eggplant, mushrooms, all from her local produce stand. If they grow
anything worth eating in Florida, they ship it out of state. We get our oranges
and strawberries from Costco—only the ones from California.
Tomatoes are another story. The little tiny ones that are
local sometimes taste OK, but the big, juicy, very red ones, nope. Why can’t
they grow good tomatoes in Florida? We even try to pick our own. Even right off
the plants, the very red ones have no taste. We can get some green vegetables
locally: green beans, cilantro, lettuce, broccoli, zucchini, but nothing that should
taste sweet.
So, once a year, when mango season comes around, it’s my
turn to gloat—and wear dark nail polish.
