Mangoes

We had a reunion, and all my siblings went from Kuching, Bau, Sibu, Kuching to celebrate my nephew's wedding and my Dad's 81 birthday. We were quite tired by the time we got to Sibu. Evonne's mum had kindly peeled and cut two plastic containers of mango for me. We kept it in the fridge in the hotel while we feasted for two days and went visiting our grandmas and aunts.

We were at the transit lounge of the Sibu airport when I remembered the mangoes. My sister E had reminded me to make sure I ate them or they would go off.  We just started eating them, me, my children and my nieces from Australia. A security guard came and used his body language of displeasure. I didn't understand him, and I kept saying, " Not durian, not durian." He kept waving his hand and saying "no! no!"

A kind person then translated for us, no mangoes on the plane. Then I said what if I shut the lid and take it with us. He still said no. What do I do? I offered it to him, and he said no. My brothers who are lawyers in Australia laughed at me trying to bribe the security guard. I went outside to the kiosk and asked the girls if they wanted some nice mangoes. They said no.

My cousin, a  plane mechanic came to say goodbye to us, arrive at the right time. he took it and gave it to the girls. This time they took them.

Mangoes are one of my favourite fruits. During my younger days in Sarawak, with my siblings, we love green mangoes. The crunchiness still makes my saliva glands secrete salivate. We eat it with a sauce of soya sauce, chilli, salt and sugar.

These days, I am miles away from my siblings in Sarawak, Singapore and Australia, I have no body to eat the green mangoes with. They don't taste the same. If I get a semi green mango, I make a mango salad with fish sauce.

In school, my students from Samoa eat them unpeeled and uncut. My drool come out, as I see them munch away. The other day, a French student ate her mango the same way. So I came home and tried to munch into this unpeel uncut Mango from Peru. I managed only one third of it. Then I peeled the skin before eating it.

In Singapore, the Chinese believe that mangoes are very heaty, and people get sick after the mango season. So they encourage us to drink a lot of cooling tea. The Indians think that eating yogurt would counteract it.

If you just like sweet mangoes with thick flesh, the Brisbane mangoes are very good. But I like a little sourness in my mangoes.