India Epilogue: Deshari, Surkha, and Safeed Mangoes

With mango season kicking off in India right about now, I asked my local colleagues where I could get my hands on some local mangoes to bring home, so they took me to a nearby market that had a few varieties. I passed on the alphonsos given how easy it is to get them in Singapore, and instead landed on the remaining three varieties pictured above.

The smallest one on the left, deshari, was the most unique of them all. My colleague mentioned that it's so small that all one has to do is cut off one end and suck out all of the flesh (it sounded weird but it worked). What surprised me further was how musky (and almost durian-like) the taste was. It actually reminded me a bit of that Malaysian mango from the other day, but creamier, less fibrous, and not quite as stanky. In other words, it was definitely better than the Malaysian one, but not necessarily one of my favorites either.

I liked the medium sized surkha one better. Its orange colored flesh was not as rich as an alphonso but nonetheless still creamy. And best of all, it was actually a bit tangy rather than being purely sweet, which kept it a bit more exciting for me. I haven't tried the big safeed one on the right yet though, as it wasn't ripe yet. I'll post an update later once I've finally tried it.