A Brilliant Method of Eating Mangoes

First: admit and submit to the glory of the mango. It is the best fruit ever.

Second: Yes, my skin is now a crispy shade of red-brown, as the photo to the lower right reveals. I can't help it! The Ghanaian sun is literally GIANT sized here, and has the super-ability of crawling beneath hats, awnings, roofs, and sunscreen.

Oh little epidermis-- keep trying your best to protect me and I shall keep trying my best to protect you!

Now back to mangoes.

It turns out there is an ingenious way to cut and eat this wonder fruit that I have learned, thanks to Ghanaian friends. Come give it a try!

1. Stand the mango on its end and slice off two hemispheres as close to the long flat pit as possible.

2. Set the middle third aside. For each of the two hemispheres, slice your knife in a cross-hatch: three or four parallel cuts in one direction, then three or four in the perpendicular direction.

3. Push your thumbs against the round dome of the hemisphere so the whole thing pops inside out (pictured, upper left), thus freeing sixteen or so succulent mango cubes! Stick your face in and eat! You will stay surprisingly clean, as each cube leaps into your mouth with a slight push of the tongue.

4. Now on to the middle third: less clean than the side thirds, but still tidier than other methods of mango devoration.

First, peel or slice off the ring of skin around this section... then chomp-slurp right into the flesh around the pit until that pit is bone white and clean! YUM! (The photo to the right gracefully pictures this action.)

5. Hurl the pit into the yard for the goats to eat (er, or into the trash or compost), wash your juice-kissed hands and face in the tap, and grab some floss for your teeth!

Feel those golden vitamins surging through you? Mmm, that feels goooood... and it tastes good, too!