Great food from the Philippines: Carabao & regular Mangoes!
by Dave from The Longest Way Home ~ November 20th, 2009. Published in: Great food from around the world.
A Carabao and regular mango from the Philippines
There are many different kinds of Mangoes available in the Philippines and all over the world. On the streets they are usually found chopped into little slices and sold in clear plastic bags. They may not be what you expect though.
Filipino’s really like a contrast of bitter, salty and sweet flavors. The slices for sale on the streets are often quite bitter and hard. They come with a dipping sauce, or just plan salt. Yes, salt and mangoes are a big favorite in the Philippines.
Pictured above in the read is the large Carabao Mango. Relative inexpensive it’s crunchy and not so sweet. While to the forefront is a regular small yellow mango that’s a very sweet and juicy.
Mangoes can by found for as little as 5 peso to 15 pesos. Always ask if it’s sweet, ripe and and or ready to eat. Vendors are quite happy to tell you. And, if there’s nothing too ripe you’ll often find a discount box with yesterdays fruit in it. Here the mangoes are on the verge of becoming over ripe. But for immediate mango eating satisfaction, it’s where I head to first!
This additional post is one of a series featuring Great Food from The Philippines.
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i love mangoes, but here in the states (at least in the midwest) we don’t get so many varieties. too cool!
-jessiev- With climate change you never know!
-Bruce- Thanks Bruce, yes they are a pretty great fruit!
for me, mangoe is the king of fruits. love eating them.dont find much variety here in deleware
Great blog. Informative and some lovely shots. I teach on a few Photography Holidays around the world and I’ll definitely be recommending this blog to my students who are always asking me about good photography websites!
-HPC- Thanks for the recommendation to your students, I hope they follow along too.
They are also famous for the Walls Ice-Creams!
The mangoes are usually sold green because it’s supposed to be eaten while it’s not yet ripe
It’s supposed to be sour and crunchy and the salt is intended to remove the tanginess (putting salt in fruits is a very Asian thing).
Try having the green mangoes with Bagoong (which is shrimp paste), there are two variants – spicy or sweet.
-dia- Yes i know about the salt thing but it doesnt do it for me. I like sweet mango. And I really dont like shrimp paste
Thanks for sharing you insight here, is much appreciated!
The mango is the national fruit of the Philippines and we claim that we have the best-tasting mango ever. The Philippine carabao mango exceeds the others in aroma, taste and sweetness. Eating this mango while in peak season (when sweetness is at its prime) can get you hooked but, hey, watch your blood sugar!
At peak season, one can buy mangoes in Manila at 50 pesos per kilo (52 cents per pound).
The mango is believed to have originated from India (we have a local variety called the Indian mango). Variants of this mango produced the carabao mango, apple mango (due to its pinkish apple-like pinkish color, pictured in background), and paho (small, juicy and sweet).
In the U.S., one can find boxes and boxes of mangoes labeled Manila Mango which come from Mexico. They are smaller, far different from the ones that originate in the Philippines, and fibrous. They sell cheap though.