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“You go your whole life thinking you’re down to the mud in the bottom of the well on a certain topic,” writes Florida Cracker, “then along comes someone to show you something new.”
Hit that link for a fascinating lesson, which ends: “Used with the correct amount of force and a good aim square between the shoulder blades, it can knock the air out of a fleeing enemy and take him to the ground.”
Mangos are good eatin’, no matter how you pare ‘em. When we lived in Miami, I planted a mango tree in the back yard and it produced the sweetest fruit you ever sunk your teeth into, and plenty of it. In fact, mango trees are such prolific fruit producers, I think a good quarter of the population in Miami enjoyed a modest second income just selling excess mangos to each other.
Great video. It’s similar to the way I cut an avocado to make guacamole, except after I cut one half of the avocado in that “diamond” pattern, I just “squeeze” that half, and the little “cubes” fall away from the skin. MUCH easier than trying to peel it. Also the only useful thing I ever learned from a cooking show.
I also couldn’t help but think of Dan Akroyd doing Julia Child on SNL: “Oh, it looks like I just cut the dickens out of my finger!”
Posted by Tex Lovera on 2007 06 18 at 01:10 PM • permalinkShe gave some of the fruit to Adam and he devoured it, thought it was the best thing he’d ever eaten, just had to have some more. And so ol’ Adam he thought about licking that mango juice off Eve.
“That’s when the heavens parted, God pointed down and told Adam he had to leave the Garden of Eden,” Floweree said. “His voice boomed out: ‘Man, go!’”
Interesting ...
Cheers
Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2007 06 18 at 01:25 PM • permalinkthen you will risk getting a little “poison”
Reason being IS…
Hives, skin rashes, and other symptoms of allergy can occur upon repeated exposure to a chemical, usually a protein. People allergic to milk, for example, don’t react the first time they encounter the beverage. A rash or other symptoms develop only after two or more exposures to it. Between those exposures, the immune system will have begun arming itself against the triggering chemical by manufacturing antibodies. Once those antibodies begin circulating, the body is primed to respond with a full-blown allergic reaction.
In some instances, however, the chemical responsible for triggering an allergic reaction may closely resemble those in other sources. And that, Tucker says, appears to be what happened here. Having been sensitized to poison ivy, the man’s immune system was primed to respond to the plant’s rash-inducing oleoresin. It apparently encountered that resin, or one nearly identical to it, in the mango’s skin.
This instant allergy to a new substance, after an earlier antibody-inducing sensitivity to another, is known as “cross reactivity.” Dermatologists had previously observed mango cross-reactivity in persons sensitized to poison ivy. “What really surprised me here,” Tucker told Science News Online, “was how dramatic its presentation was. It was almost like you’d inked someone’s hand and transferred that print to the man’s leg, because you could definitely see the shape of a hand and three fingers.”
If the man’s skin had previously been exposed to mango, the physicians would not have had to look for cross-reactivity to explain the hand print. However, Tucker points out, the smoothies that the man had so enjoyed had been prepared by others and consumed through a straw. So he should not have had any skin contact with oleoresins in the fruit’s skin or even with the drink.
Had a Mango tree in our yard in St.Pete., Fl. Had a member of the family soooooo allergic (he’d damn near break out, if we mentioned the words) to poison ivy, we called him Calamine Eddie.
Needless to say Eddie, never stayed at our place…thank God…:).
Interesting article, El Cid. The mango is actually in the same family as poison ivy, so some people are, indeed, allergic to it. I am one of those folks who’s not allergic to either one. I found out when I was about six years old that I wasn’t allergic to poison ivy by rubbing it all over myself. No reaction, whatsoever. I do not recommend this as a standard test, however. Poison sumac, on the other hand, gives me a tremendous rash.
It’s not just the mango that’s related to poison oak/ivy.
Cashew nuts come inside a tasty fruit, which you’ll likely never see in any store. Partly because the plant has the same oil that makes poison oak so “special”.
A college friend of mine was from Panama, and for the longest time he said that our liking for cashews didn’t make any sense to him; when he was growing up, they’d eat the fruit and throw away the seeds.
It’s a weird-looking fruit, as it happens; the nut grows attached to the outside of the fruit, not inside it.
Beware doing that test too often, Paco. I am one of those people who was never allergic to poison ivy—- until my thirties, when I developed a full-blown reaction. I found out the hard way that this makes me allergic to mangoes as well. Even though I love the fruit, I’ll never touch another one because the last time I did, my face swelled and broke out, and my throat almost closed up. I couldn’t be allergic to pears, or bananas, or some other fruit I could live without. No. It had to be mangoes. It’s not fair.
I guess if I need a projectile, I’ll just have to stick to rocks.
#10 Rebecca: Did the flesh of the fruit, itself, cause that reaction, or did you touch the skin? I didn’t know that people were also allergic to the fruit. That is a major bummer. Maybe you can find some cherimoya (once described by Mark Twain, of all people, as the perfect fruit). Looks like a little hand grenade, and, when chilled, it’s like eating custard right out of the skin it came in.
Monty Python taught me years ago, how to defend myself against all manner of fruit-laden attacker (Instructional Video here).
Admittedly, it was only mangoes in syrup but I am sure I could survive.
#11, I believe it was the juice, as I had peeled the skin off. However, mango that has been blanched and canned seems to be okay, so I’ll never know for sure. Not willing to take the risk.
I’ll have to try cherimoya. Is it yellow? I might have tried something like that, forgot what it was called.
Tried durian fruit once, when somebody told me it’s like custard. Ugh. Think of a giant, stinky marshmallow locked inside a steel casing studded with nails.
Paco: the best time of mango season is the desperation time, when you see bags overflowing with the things lining the front of peoples’ yards, with signs next to them saying “Free mangos! Take them! For the love of God! Before we are buried!” Or something like that.
That’s one thing I miss about Miami—all the mango trees. I’ve seen a few here and there in Orlando, but they don’t seem to grow as prolifically.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 06 18 at 08:35 PM • permalinkOne more thing: my mother was allergic to the skin of the mango—the sap coming from the stem area especially. But she could eat the fruit, as long as someone peeled it for her.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 06 18 at 08:36 PM • permalinkA mate told me that the best way to eat a mango was in the bath, with a friend. And a team of ace chiropractors standing by. And a block & tackle.
Posted by Paul Wright on 2007 06 19 at 08:07 AM • permalinkEl Cid: no, it’s just that the climate is a bit colder up here (no, really, we get an extra week of below-50 degree Fahrenheit weather).
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 06 19 at 09:59 AM • permalink
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There’s only one way to eat a mango, and it’s not sitting a bathtub wearing a raincoat. However, I have never imagined a mango seed as an assault weapon. Until now. Possibilities are endless.