National Mango Day

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Satchmo Summer Fest 15

It is National Mango Day. A few years ago the mango surpassed the banana to become the world's most popular fresh fruit. It's not Number One in America, but we're eating lots more of them. As Thai and Indian restaurants become more popular, so do mangoes. The fruit originally came from India, where they are held in some reverence. Growing mangoes requires not just a warm climate but one in which there are distinct wet and dry seasons. The fruit trees have spread for almost two thousand years, as far as Mexico and the Caribbean.Mangoes are certainly delicious. They're particularly excellent chilled and served as is, or with ice cream. In Thai restaurants it's a common dessert with sweetened rice. The meat is soft, sweet, and aromatic--unless it gets too ripe. Then it gives off a sort of petroleum smell that can turn you off to the fruit forever. Don't let that happen. Mangoes ripen off the tree, so they can be picked unripe. Unripe mangoes can be marinated into pickles, used for things like mango chutney.Mangoes have just one big seed, sort of like an avocado--which mangoes also resemble in size and shape. (They're not related.) Don't bother trying to grow your own mango trees from the seeds. They don't reproduce true, and will likely give you a petroleum-scented fruit with a tremendous amount of fiber. Good mangoes come only from grafted trees. They also are killed by barely freezing temperatures

The bigger the mango, the better it is. Don't let the juice get on a white shirt. It never washes out.

Cook, Ohio is twenty-seven miles southwest of Columbus, the state capital. It began as a station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The trains still roll through Cook, but don't stop. This is wide, flat farmland, and a cluster of houses is on the Cook-Yankeetown Road here. It's not too far to the nearest eateries, several of which are in Mount Sterling, three miles northeast. I like the modest sound of the Corner Restaurant there.

Chilean sea bass, n.--A marketing name for a fish known to ichthyologists as the less appealing moniker "Patagonian toothfish." It lives in the frigid, deep waters of the Southern Ocean (surrounding Antarctica). It has long been fished, but about twenty years ago aggressive marketing created so much demand and profit potential that it's estimated three-fourths of the fish's population was reeled in. It became popular in this country because of its firm, pearlescent white flesh and mild flavor. It is the nature of toothfish that it needs longer cooking than most fish for it to really become tender and release its flavor. This is not always known to chefs who cook it, resulting in a greater risk of dissatisfaction. On top of that, even though the fishery has come under mush better regulation, illegal fishing is rife, resulting not only in decimation of the species, but also of the whales and seals that eat the. It's not a fish I would recommend, for all these reasons.

A whole bunch of first around-the-world flights ended successfully today, in different years. Wiley Post was the first man to do it in an airplane, in 1933. In 1989, eleven-year-old Tony Aliengena became the youngest pilot ever to circumnavigate. And in 1983 Dick Smith became the first to fly around the world solo in a helicopter. All on the same date! What are the chances? More important, what did they eat?

The fact that a restaurant fills your plate is not good enough reason for you to empty it. The fuller it is, the more this is true.

On this date in 1822, Gregor Mendel was born. He was the father of plant genetics, and discoverer of the mechanism by which plants and animals give rise to hybrids. This led ultimately to the creation of the great strains of vegetables and meats that we enjoy now. Thank him for Creole tomatoes, Black Angus beef, and broccoli.

Vanilla Fudge, which made tripped-out, mock-psychedelic versions of Motown songs, made its first concert appearance in New York today in 1967.

Orson Bean (whose real name was Dallas Burroughs, which sounds as good to me as "Orson Bean") was born today in 1928. He was a mellow-mood comedian with an intellectual bent I always liked. He had a famous conversation with Johnny Carson once about how he loved to order escargots in restaurants, "as long as they hold the slugs." . . . Godfrey of Bouillon, one of the leaders of the First Crusade, was named First Defender of the Holy Sepulchre today in 1099. . . William Archibald Spooner, a preacher, came to earth today in 1844. He had the unfortunate habit of switching consonants around in his speech. For example, "The dear old Queen" came out "The queer old Dean." Such expressions became known as "spoonerisms.". . . Former British race car driver Calvin Fish was born today in 1961. He's now a TV sports commentator. . . Canadian dancer and actress A.J. Cook hit the Big Stage today in 1978.

"Garnishing of dishes has also a great deal to do with the appearance of a dinner table, each dish garnished sufficiently to be in good taste without looking absurd."--Hugo Ziemann, former White House steward.

"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and miss."--Robert A. Heinlein.