Mango Sheets

I don't know what was wrong with me when I was a child. I didn't like mangoes. I can't recollect the issue exactly but it was the flavour rather than texture that had me turning up my nose. Also, handling them was disconcerting for a Melbourne boy bought up on a mostly temperate climate fruit diet of apples, bananas, oranges and the odd pear or grape. What was exotic tropical fruit in those days rarely hit the green-grocer's display trays and when we got them home, things turned messy and sticky. Slippery bits of mushy mango flesh shot from our hands directly to the floor.

I gave up on mangoes for a long time.

Of course, in Vietnam and elsewhere in the region, mangoes dominate the fruitscape. I've learned how to handle them and I can appreciate them all ways, shredded fine and green in a salad with duck, dipped in salt and chili as an afternoon snack, in smoothies with ice and condensed milk and even over-ripe and dripping, just the way I didn't like them all those years ago.

At the Nha Trang market, I can pick them up in a sheet, a stunning orange pane of dried mango jam.

At the mango farm, a simple process sees ripe mangoes peeled, wet flesh roughly pared and stone thrown away. In a big pot on the heat, some sugar is added to the flesh and the mixture is brought to the boil. This hot molten mango lava is poured onto a flat surface where it is trowelled even. A day or two in the sun dries the sheets before they are cut into the desired shape and layered on top of one another for packaging.

Known as banh xoai (mango cake), this addictive chewy fruit sweet really pushes my buttons. In fact, I reckon I've eaten a decent square metre of the stuff in one sitting. 

Comments

[Tram]

I really like ur blog ALOT! Brings me such joy to see amazing photos of food I've eaten my whole life. I hope you're having a great time in Vietnam.

[kristine]

i am sitting here munching on a big bad of dried mango. not quite the same, i know, but ...well...yum.

[Sticky]

I am having a great time in VN, Tram, and glad to be bringing joy!
Kristine - I want you to finish the lot in one sitting!

[Jena]

I love Phillipine dried mango and I like mango sorbets & stuff, but fresh mango hasn't done much for me. This I would probably like, though.

[meemalee]

The ones in Burma are really dark brown, dunno why, and called thayet-byar, literally "mango flat".

It was my first taste of Burmese food from Burma when I was about 3 (my cousin brought some over for us).

[Lan]

I myself love this mango specialty very much. Especially if the mango was not so sweet...ideal to wake you up after midday nap to start work again!