Mangos!

I eat a lot of mangos — when they’re in season, I take one to work every day as part of my lunch, so I buy them by the box.  (Usually $6 – $8 for a box of 8-10 mangos.)

My local store in Atlantaland sells five different varieties of mangos at different times of year:  Tommy Atkins, Haden, Keitt, Kent, and Ataulfo.  They post a sign indicating which variety they’re selling, but four of the five varieties look very similar, so I couldn’t keep them straight.   (Ataulfo are kidney-shaped and yellow.  The other four varieties are large and oval, and come in shades of green, yellow, orange and red.)

However, I noticed that sometimes the mangos I got were really stringy, and other times the mangos had a much smoother texture.  After one too many disappointing mangos, I decided it was time to get more information on each of the varieties, so I’d know which ones to look out for and which to avoid.  After a quick visit to the wikipedia entry on mangos, which mentioned that there are dozens of species of mango and hundreds of cultivars, but didn’t give much description of flavor and texture, I went on a full-fledged web search.

The Oppenheimer Group’s website had the best info I found on the five mango varieties.  (They’re a Canadian fruit importer.  Apparently these five varieties are widely available in Canada, too.)  Here’s a quick summary of the flavor and texture of each variety:

Tommy Atkins:  Tangy – sweet and juicy with firm flesh, thick skin and medium fiber

Haden:  Sweet, juicy, and tropically mild flavor with moderate fiber

Keitt:  Piney sweet flavor with minimal fiber

Kent:  Rich and ultra sweet with soft texture and no fiber

Ataulfo: Tropically sweet, rich and nearly fiber-free

So now I know — the variety I like best is Kent, with Keitt and Ataulfo a close second.  Tommy Atkins are at the store right now, but according to The Oppenheimer Group’s calendar Kent will be in season starting in November!

 

Barbershop voter registration poster

 

This poster is in the window of a couple of barbershops on Forsyth St. in downtown Atlanta. Apparently this is part of the Obama campaign’s voter registration effort.

Ingrid in the snow

It snowed twice last week in Atlantaland. This is from the first time — Ingrid was in the Marta station parking lot all day, and the snow was still falling when I got back to her. The roads were too warm for the snow to stick, so driving home was no problem. (Ingrid’s new habit of randomly konking out while driving was still a concern, however.)

Jefferson

That ear looks tasty!

47K uploaded to Flickr.

Courtney

Courtney looks pensive.

Second try. 1.84 M uploaded to Flickr.

Blake

Poor dog — his tongue doesn’t fit in his mouth!

1.24 M photo on Flickr.

This is a test of posting photos to my WordPress blog.  I didn’t have enough text next to the photo, initially, so I’m adding some to see if that makes the formatting of the page better.  No, not enough yet.  Just got to ramble on, as Jimmy and the gang would say.  Um, ramble.  Ramble.  What does any of this have to do with Blake, pictured to the right?  Precious little.

Cats on the bed

Harold, Spike and Pearl curled up on the bed.

113 k photo from Flickr.

This is a picture of cats.  And they’re on the bed.  Spike appears to be getting the best out of this deal, since he’s in the middle.  But he has to contend with Pearl’s outstretched pointy bits, so maybe Harold (who has a warm cat against his belly) is the winner.

Vernacularity

What does it say about you if the word “vernacular” is in your vernacular?