A Happy food Related Story.

[urgeok]

years ago i was at an indian buffet (south east asian if you like)
I had a condiment that was like a pickle .. it looked like some busted up green vegetable - and it was frigging amazing. strong, salty, tasty.

i've never been able to find it since.

last week the afghan student working with me (who lived in Pakistan for most of his life) as well as another fellow from Pakistan in my office got talking about Indian food. I mentioned this 'pickle' stuff and the young guy said he though he knew what i was on about and on the way home we'd stop into a Pakistani grocery to see if it was there.

i walked in and within a few minutes - the clouds parted and a shaft of pure golden sunlight shone straight down on an assortment of these pickled mangos. Some mixed, some extra hot, .... i grabbed 4 different bottles.

went home ..
opened the 1st jar ..

and died and went to heaven.

this stuff is THE SHIT !!!!

[Spec7ral]

hmmm me thinks i might have to find some...

[Haunted]

Hmmm... I can see next week's trip to Charlotte will involve a trip to the Asian markets. Sounds like a great gift for my bro and an indulgence for myself. (My brother so rarely gets to eat "exotic wonderous cuisine" due to his girlfriend and soon to be fiance being too Southern for our um..."taste."

Thank you for this news report, urge.

[urgeok]

if you're looking - they might refer to it as mango chutney - but its really a pickled mango - and its green..

edit to update ..

i just grabbed 3 out of the fridge (the 4th is at work)

my fave :

Mitchell's Mixed Pickle - made in pakistan
they have a web site : www.mitchells.com.pk

also -

- National - Extra Hot Mixed Pickle in Oil - made in pakistan

and finally :

- Nirav - homemade extra hot mango pickle - get this : Indian Groceries & spices inc. Spokie Il.

the one that looked the most authentic was made in the USA.
the ones that have american sounding names - made in pakistan.





word of caution: i dont find them very hot - but i have a high tolerance.
the real thing to take care about is - they are packed in oil - high fat content.
i can only eat a small amount at a time because of that.

[crabapple]

Aha! I know the pickled mango you are talking about of which you speak the one you mentioneded.:eek: It is yommy!

[Haunted]

Me too. I know what you're talking about now. We can get it at the Indian restaurant in Columbia, SC. Good shit. (They know my brother by name. Mostly because he's a homicide investigator I think).

[Spec7ral]

which one is most flavorful? (heat is of no import i can take alot) im in it for the flavor.

[Phalanx]

the clouds parted and a shaft of pure golden sunlight shone straight down on an assortment of these pickled mangos. Some mixed, some extra hot, .... i grabbed 4 different bo
Shit man, I coulda told you that, I eat those all the time.
It's a south indian specialty. They're not really mangoes as "we" know them, they're a variety grown in south/western asian coutries, especially india...and they're picked before maturity. This practice originated in the more village-y areas of south india, whether or not it came out of food shortage...etc, I'm not sure. For some trivia - they grow a lot of cashews there too.
Spals brother is half indian, so I've learned quite a bit from him in terms of cooking/flavours (to an extent), and a few treats like this one.
There's generally two varieties (not so much in terms of flavour, there's more, but shape/size of mango), theres:
The larger peices of the larger mangoes...they're generally milder, they're quite hard and not very palitable, you CAN chew through them, but it's more the sauces they're in that they've been used as a part of, although if you add the peices to a curry, they'll soften.
Then there's the TINY ones, a little more bitter (my personal favourite), these are much softer, and have not developed a hard seed yet; they're babies. They're actually BOTH "under-ripe", hence the bitterness and darkness in colour.
In this case, the sauce is more secondary...they're in a deep red sauce more often than not, and have a real kick, the fruit is very tart, and the sauce is a good heat. I like to cut them up into tiny peices and add them to salads and sandwiches.
The variety of different flavours varies region to region...there are SO many different manufacturers, that telling you a brand among thousands would be ridiculous. Pretty much all I've tried has been great, so have a go at all you can find, no doubt you'll find a favourite. Man, I love living in a town with 3 eastern asian grocery stores, and two indian ones...spice heaven.

Oh, and if you can get it...my personal favourite at the moment is
"Mother's recipe" Kerala Vadu Mango. It's of the latter mentioned variety, and just has that kind of intense flavour that makes the sides of your jaws feel like they're aching...but in a good way.

[Disease]

Why didn't you just hunt them down yourself earlier Urge?

[urgeok]

which one is most flavorful? (heat is of no import i can take alot) im in it for the flavor.

this one

Mitchell's Mixed Pickle - made in pakistan
they have a web site : www.mitchells.com.pk

[urgeok]

Why didn't you just hunt them down yourself earlier Urge?


i had no idea they were mango before i was talking to my friends .. didnt know what the hell they were..

[Haunted]

I do believe some one mentioned a recipe...

If it's not too inconvenient, I would be indepted.

[Phalanx]

It's not something you could really easily make not having access to the fruit they use specifically. I know you can always get "mangoes" in most countries, but these are a certain type, I'm not even sure if they can grow anywhere outside of asia...I know for sure they don't even sell the TYPE here. If you were to use normal mangoes, it would be completely different, I imagine.
As for the recipe, on my jar, it says, aside from "those" mangos - salt, processed (undisclosed) spices, chilli (seems to be of the super hot south indian powdered texture and colour), mustard, methi & hing (I'm not even familiar with those two...could well be regional names for things that exist outside though) tumeric, asafoetida. They don't give any unit measurements...
I would personally just hit up the indian grocery stores.
A jar of these things is generally under $5, you get plenty, and they're excellent as is...the companies, well most of them, that make them have been doing so for years under similar conditions and recipes that go back generations, and this shows...Any indian grocery story will carry numerous types. Good value, good product.
I personally wouldn't even attempt to undertake making them unless I was planning on going to india, even importing the fruit would probably be out of the question, and probably expensive otherwise.

BTW, Urg - not all of them are oily. Try the one I reccomended, there's no oil in it, at all. Get either that, or another one with the full young mangoes in it. One type is like mango pickle (the big cut up peices), one is more like pickled mangoes. If your tolerance is high as you say, and you want that really intense hot and sour taste, you won't be dissapointed.
http://indiaspicehouse.shopclassic.com/index.cfm?Page=ShowDetails&ProductID=3839
That's the one, and going by the price, you might want to have a look at this site too...even cheaper than I usually get this stuff. If not, it's a fairly popular brand, as I've been told, shouldn't be hard to track.

[urgeok]

BTW, Urg - not all of them are oily. Try the one I reccomended, there's no oil in it, at all. Get either that, or another one with the full young mangoes in it. One type is like mango pickle (the big cut up peices), one is more like pickled mangoes. If your tolerance is high as you say, and you want that really intense hot and sour taste, you won't be dissapointed.
http://indiaspicehouse.shopclassic.com/index.cfm?Page=ShowDetails&ProductID=3839
That's the one, and going by the price, you might want to have a look at this site too...even cheaper than I usually get this stuff. If not, it's a fairly popular brand, as I've been told, shouldn't be hard to track.



sounds good !

[Spallalala]

I might be able to get you guys a tradtional mango pickle recipe.
When my brother came back from india last year he gave cheebs and I 2 recipe books from Kerala. These books were written by some local indian chicky so when I get home I will have a looky through then and see what I can find out. Some ingrediants yes are gonna be hard to find but I think this book actually tells you what you can substitute some stuff with.