Tropical Disappointment

I should have known better, but hope against all hopes, I bought mangoes for a fruit salad. I already knew that bananas in the States aren't as sweet as ones in Mozambique. December, as I have mentioned in an earlier post, is fruit salad month in Mozambique--mangoes and pineapples are in season and bananas and papayas are always producing. So for the past six Decembers we have had luscious tropical fruit salad.

The mangoes I purchased came from Ecuador.  I cut into the first one, it was hard and pale yellow, not a succulent, juicy orange like I was accustomed to. The second one was a little riper and the third, though it looked much closer to Mozambican mangoes, the juice did not run down my hands, making it hard to hold the mango to slice.

Lesson learned...fruit that travels so far does not have the flavor or juice as local fresh fruit. Sigh. When I was in Moz I missed temperate climate fruit--apples, pears, peaches, berries. Now, I miss tropical fruit.