Confessions of a mango addict

Hello, I’m KChie, and I suffer from an incurable case of mango lust. After years of buying fresh mangoes in the supermarkets and ethnic stores in order to delight in that rare mango that actually tastes like a ripe juicy mango worthy of being called a mango, I’ve been driven to delighting in the dried variety. Now some of you may have more serious mango addictions than I do, and groan that I would ever stoop so low as to consider dried mango snacks as a decent enough substitute. I know. Where’s the juice you ask? That opportunity to have that sweet thick nectar drip down one’s lips leaving one all sticky? That pleasure from gnawing at the seed to make sure each and every succulent drop of mango pulp is enjoyed? I get it. Dried mango is not where it is at.

But when you can’t just walk outside and pull off mangoes from the tree and when you are not bombarded by mango-pushers at every turn of traffic (street hawkers), what can you do?

It started when I invited the Phillipines Brand Dried Mango into my life in 2009. This huge bag, found at Costco, is full of sweetened moist authentic flavour mango slices. I don’t know how long it’s supposed to last, and although a serving is “only 160 calories”, all of which is pure sugar (32g), who eats just six pieces at a go? I got to the point where I could finish that huge bag in a couple days. Imagine. I would go weeks and months between bags because I don’t have Costco membership, but trust my ears piqued whenever anyone mentioned going on a Costco trip.

So, in a bid to control my sugar addiction, because that’s what the problem really is I told myself, I switched over to the no sugar added versions of dried mango. The leathery looking, sometimes hard pieces that don’t look very appetizing available in the dried fruit bins of whole food stores including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s Just Mango Slices Unsulfured & Unsweetened, and Bare Fruits Organic Bake-Dried Mango.  Delicious! Of course at first I was very good once again. These came in smaller packages and I would eat a single serving of still mostly simple carbohydrates and call it a day till the next time. After all, it was much better to fulfill my sweet tooth with these rather than a Twix or Snickers bar, I would reason. But in no time I was eating the whole packet (3-4 servings) at a go and daily at that. And when I would run out (for I had to buy them in bulk since none is available in a walk-in store closeby) I would go into withdrawal until the next purchase.

And that is how it comes to be that I recently went on a 3 hour round trip roadtrip to the closest Trader Joes to “stock up” on mango before the winter starts reasoning that this stockpile would last until the spring. What was I thinking and who was I kidding? As it is now, the snow has yet to fall, and my stockpile is rapidly nearing zero. Of course since the bad weather has not yet come, I could go on a re-stocking expedition, but honestly KChie, enough is enough!

You are sooo banned from dried mangoes of any sort. I mean, that is after the current stockpile does reach zero.  You are just going to have to go back to sniffing those things in the store they call mangoes, and hoping you take a real succulent one home with you more frequently than not or take another tropical vacation.