The Surprise Mango Party

Ok a few days ago was June 10. Vola! That actually happens to be my birthday. So this time i decided to do something special for all my colleagues and to surprise them. It so happened that June 10th was also a tuesday; all my work meetings (3 of them) are scheduled for tuesdays. So i told my team coordinator that i have an agenda item to discuss at the end of the first meeting. So far so good. Now comes the surprise. Point is - its my birthday and the surprise should be exciting. Vola! Why bother getting a cake, or cookies when one can NOW buy Indian Mangoes in the USA.

Yes folks, can you imagine that till 2007 you couldnt actually import Indian Mangoes because of a trade restriction! Ok, the current US president and administration is not exactly everyone's favorite, but if there is ONE thing that President Bush got right, it was this; He signed a deal to sell India Nukes and in return, accepted to lift the ban on indian mango imports in the US. You can actually get the most delicious, awesome and just "OUT of the WORLD", indian mangoes in your local indian grocery stores (like those in jackson heights or order them online).

Now folks, i know most people in the US, are like "yeah mangoes, whats the big deal?" Sorry, folks, but its a HUGE deal. The california or mexican mangoes are just PULP compared to the flavor and juiciness of the indian mangoes. And in India you can get like 500+ different varieties of mangoes. My favorites are the Malda, Dushehri (you dont get them here still) and kesar ( you get that and also the famous alphonso, which i think is good but hyped up). To know how obsessed indians are with mangoes (and politicians) see this blog about a mango being named after a famous politician

So I knew WHAT my surprise would be - a whole treat of indian mangoes for my colleagues. So i went on monday evening to jackson heights (if there is anything that you want to buy in indian grocery, just land up at patel brothers). And went straight to the mango section. I was in for a disappointing news - yes they had mangoes but the guy there says, "dude you cant come in today and expect to get all ripe mangoes ready for consumption. our mangoes need atleast 2 days to ripen at the time we sell them. you cant have ripe mangoes for your SURPRise party tomorrow." That was a Surprise, for me. But determined not to give up, i suggested that we open a few boxes (the mangoes are sold in boxes of 10-12 mangoes and costs $20 per box) and chose the ones that were ready to eat and combine to make one box of 12 Ripe mangoes. "Sorry sir, we cant mix and match mangoes from different cases. We just wont do it." There he goes, flattening my hopes of making it happen. Not to be outdone. I really had to have mangoes for the party on tuesday. I reasoned, "well know one knows about it - so have it a week later". But the optimist in me said, "think of something, you gotta have this on YOUR birthday and not a week later." So i thought and got my answer. I told that guy, "dude, i am not giving up. You open as many cases as may be needed - i will buy all as long as i can get 12-14 ready to eat mangoes from all these open cases." On hearing that, i guess he understood that i really wanted. So he decided to be more sporting and we actually opened 30 cases and inspected them for ripe mangoes. IN the end he was kind to me - h resealed 26 of the boxes and chose the best 4 (that is 48 mangoes) from which i was able to pull out 14 ripe and ready to eat mangoes. So with some thought, i have mangoes for party and we didnt swap mangoes (only from the 4 cases that i bought). At night, i refrigerated the 14 ripe mangoes and then in the morning de-skinned and cut them into nice fillets. The morning of June 10, I had 3 containers full of cut, ripe indian mangoes of the Kesar (that is saffron ) variety.

Ripe Kesar Mangoes (notice their beautiful color and shape - and they smell awesome too)

I was excited. At 11.45am after 1 hr 15 mins of meeting and just 15 minutes left for it to get over, it was my turn to discuss my agenda item. I told my folks, i needed to get a print out and stepped out to the office pantry to get the cut mangoes out ( i had already collected the plates and spoons) - and then there is was - loads of mangoes in the meeting room with me announcing that this was the Agenda - "its my birthday folks and i have Indian Mangoes" I pulled it 10-15 other people in the office and we ended up having an AWESOME mango party - a colleague actually asked me the recipe - he couldnt believe mangoes could be so sweet and delicious - he thought i had flavored them.

So folks, before the month ends, do yourself a favor. Go get some indian mangoes and put them in the fridge and then get your friends and family and enjoy a mango party.