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Saturday, May 12, 2012

How to slice & peel a mango (in that order)

Yes, slice a mango before peeling it. In previous years I peeled first, and doing that with but a single mango should have been enough to tell me that that isn't the right approach. Instead, I kept trying to learn how to slice a peeled mango without launching it across the room (or cutting myself).
    I guess it was my inability to slice without launching (or without coming perilously close to cutting a finger) that led me to try a whole new approach, as shown in this series of chronological photographs taken this very evening:

A perfectly soft mango (softening accelerated by the
mango's having been enclosed in a paper bag,
to collect the ethylene exhaled by its skin)
I've sliced the right half away from the mango's fibrous seed
Now both sides have been sliced away from the seed
(shown in the lower left)
Ooh, I forgot; at this point I do a bit of peeling,
of the skin around the narrow perimeter of the seed
(sometimes I get a single long piece of skin, but not this time)
Now I've sliced away the flesh from around the seed edges
And I've sliced one side into eight segments
...and wrapped the other half for having in the morning
Now I've sliced the side segments
(and already put the skin into the compost collecting container)
I've halved my wife's segments,
arrayed them casually on a small plate, and
provided a round toothpick for dainty eating
Now I've added eight large strawberry halves to her plate
The chef likes to delectate over smaller pieces,
and to do so still in the kitchen, off the cutting board

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