Arrival of the Mango

This blog focuses quite a bit on nuts, so as a change of pace I thought I would focus on fruit -- the king of all fruit, the Indian mango!

The New York Times reported today that the first legal shipment of delectable, succulent, juicy Indian mangoes arrived at Kennedy Airport on Friday.

It has been a tough voyage for the mango:

Since India first applied to ship mangoes to the United States in 1989, the fruit has been barred because it can harbor the mango seed weevil, a pest absent from North America. A solution emerged in January 2006, when the Agriculture Department allowed the importation of produce treated with low doses of irradiation to kill or sterilize insects — a somewhat controversial issue.

On a visit to India five weeks later, President George W. Bush cheered the news as he announced a pact on nuclear energy and trade. “The United States is looking forward to eating Indian mangoes,” he said.

Apparently these Indian mangoes are prohibitively expensive but they are worth it. The tasteless varieties available from Mexico aren't even mangoes, as far as I am concerned.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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