Pickled Mango

Pickled Mango
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I just finished reading a mouth watering article on the NPR website about pickling foods and it made me think that I should take a picture of the pickled mangos that I bought here (should might be incorrect, perhaps I was just that bored).

I had never heard of pickled mangos before I met Faysal, a Bangladeshi microfinance advisor (he works for my organization and lives in the same compound I do) who is almost as frustrated with the food situation in my organization as I am the difference is he can speak some Dari and can get around in Kabul much easier than I. He introduced me to these “pickled vegetables” (mainly mangos) as something that would help along the oil N’ okra concoction that we are fed here on a regular basis (and no, to my southern brethren oil N okra does not mean breaded and fried okra that I love so dearly but literally okra diced, and cooked with an inordinate amount of oil) and he was right it is Pakistani which is very similar to Indian which is by definition spicy… and the acidic spiciness does indeed make the okra concoction more palatable.

Whats interesting to me is that I never would have guessed that it was mango, apparently the pickling process turns the mango into an avocado like consistency (I thought I was eating avocado at first), not only that, they apparently just dice the mango up whole, skin, seed and all so you have to spit out chunks of mango seeds (for those who don’t know Mango sees are large, imagine a golf ball flattened into a semi-oblong shape) which doesn’t thrill me but its much less trouble than say watermelon (which they have here in spades).

An interesting side note, when I was given the pickled mangos I asked if they needed to be refrigerated and was told no, not at all, but that I should be sure to keep them in the sun... reminded me of the Simpson’s episode where grandpa Simpson was working in a fast food shop, ran out of the shop's "special sauce", told his pimply teenaged boss and the kid said "oh, quick! go put some mayonnaise in the sun"… different cultures, different customs.