Every year Val taunts me with texts of mango. Fresh, right from the trees mango. Boxes and bags of ripe, fresh mango. But, once a year we try to do mangopalooza, mango madness or some such mango themed party. This year it was Mangofest. So, what can you do with mango?  

Obviously fresh mango have to be a part of this. These are not your grocery store mango. These are edible sunshine. It is a shame mango season is so short, but we gorge while we can. There was also dried mango which may sound weird, but all the concentrated sugars make them highly addictive. We went through Val’s entire stockpile of dried mango. The entire thing.  

 There was mango-kale salad. This was not as good as the magic kale salad, but it was darn good and fit the mango theme. Kale, quinoa, chickpeas, mango, red pepper, almonds and a light dressing. It worked pretty well.  

 Not nearly as pretty, but just as tasty (or so the boys told me) was the mango chicken. Val started a mango BBQ base and had me finish the seasoning since I like BBQ sauce and she doesn’t. Chipotle peppers, mustard, salt and pepper … it wasn’t bad, but I thought it needed an earthy note. No one complained so we will count it as a minor success.  

 The star of the show was the mango salsa. Mango, red onion, red pepper, cilantro, salt and lime juice. This went on the pork for mango pork tacos and was eaten plain with chips. Once we tasted it, Val made a second batch and by the end of the night, it was totally gone. I plan to make this myself this week. It really was that good.  

 Mango season will be over before we know it and the magic will be gone for another year. Thankfully Val sent me home with a bag of mango so I can make a few dishes myself this week. Bob may get very tired of mango, but then he won’t have to eat it for another year since I just cannot bring myself yo buy grocery store mangos. They are just not the same. It’s like the Jeresy tomatoes – once you have them fresh, nothing else will ever do.