Friday, May 11, 2007

Emperor of Fruits


If the mango is the king of fruits, the Alphonso (also known as Hafuz) is the emperor.

It is great to be in India during the heart of the mango season. Our visits in the last couple of decades have been usually during the winter so we have always missed the peak season (April/June). But now that we are here, we are thoroughly enjoying eating mangoes. The Alphonso is considered to be the best mango in terms of sweetness and flavors. It even has it's own page on Wikipedia, if you care to read more about this exquisite fruit.

We are pretty much in the peak season now and you can get the sweetest and tastiest Alphonsos at this time of the year. They run about Rs. 400/dozen - so you are paying around $1/mango. But when you sink your teeth into this juicy, sweet and succulent fruit, it seems like a price well worth it.

Just found out that the restrictions from the US agricultural department have been lifted on the Indian mango and starting in 2007, Indian mangoes can be shipped to the US. Keep an eye out for these delectable fruits at your local supermarket. You will never understand the joy of eating one of these until you actually try one!!

1 comment:

marsha said...

Hi there,
I totally agree with you. The alphonso is KING. It's Kishor's fave fruit. In fact we are paying a whopping Ksh 800 per kg to have the fruit my mum has bought in Mumbai delivered to us at Mombasa!
Enjoy the flavour and the boils!
Marsha