food of the week: mango

this last week has been one of feasting and festivities (is it any wonder the words share a common root?). it all began on sunday, when Navdanya's long awaited mango festival finally arrived. the day began as any other, but soon visitors descended upon the farm, and the men of the mango orchard carted in box after box of mangos. our kitchen staff and the farm marketing manager carefully arranged boxes in a row on a table, labeling them and decorating them with flowers and decorative silver foil.

there followed a scrumptious mango tasting...

a walk through the orchard, where we learned to tell if a mango was ripe by pressing on it's 'node'...

and finally a lunch made of mangos! cold mango rice salad with pineapple and green pepper, warm rice salad with mango, mango dahl, mango subji with green bean, mango chutney, mango pickle, mango chapati, mango pudding, and even mango juice (which had a smell reminiscent of egg salad). suffice it to say, by the end of the festival, we were all mangoed out!