Ingredients:
3 or 4 full or half-ripe mangoes (long, calabash, rose or julie)
Peel and cut into 1/2 inch wide julienne strips (like fries), keep seeds
Hot pepper (scotch bonnet or bird peppers)
About 3 leaves bandanya (Shadon benny/ culantro)
1 or 2 cloves garlic
Salt to taste.
Mince pepper, bandanya and garlic and add to mango strips in a large bowl.
Add salt to taste and mix well.
For extra heat, allow to soak for a while (out in the sun)
Enjoy. (Consume with caution)
My fondest memories of childhood include our chow making endeavours. Every fruit had chow-potential. From chennets to guava to portugal, pommerac, dunks...you name...we made it.
Mango chow was the classic. Sometimes the mangoes weren't full and barely out of the flowering stage...but once you had a group of kids with free time on their hands...book it...chow was the plan. The mango sour and you twisted your face all how and your salivary glands protested at the taste, but it cut down.
I remember the bowl making one pass and by the time it reached back to you it was empty...and there was always a fight for who would get the seed...inarguably the best part of the chow.
Pommerac and cashew were good alternatives when they were in season, but they had a nasty habit of making you cough. Chennet was fun if you got sweet ones, but when I think about everyone biting the fruits to put them back in the bowl....I can't believe we didn't pick up some bad germs.
Pommecythere were nice but if they weren't ripe you had a tough time biting the fruit.
I wonder if children still make chow...or do we get our dose of sour treats from the grocer's store or fancy restaurant...hmm
Maybe I'll make a bowl one of these days and see if it lives up to my memories.
