The mango guy at Sultan Center
I love mangos but I have no clue how to choose the good ones. I have a pretty terrible hit rate with 3 out of 5 mangos I get turning out to be crap. Buzberry had a post on mangos and I posted a comment asking for tips on choosing the best mango and a reader called Alvaro they replied with the following:
Well u should pick the ones which are a bit greenish, since they’re gona stay in ur fridge for a day or so until they turn yellow.. When mangos r yellow and slightly redish – they’re perfect! Remember avoid the ones which are easily squeezed and never get ones that have black patches or whatever that dirty stuff is.. Bon apetit!
So I went to Sultan Center Sharq and picked out what I thought were the four best mangos on the shelf but then I noticed a Sultan Center employee bringing in new boxes of mangos. So I went up to him and showed him my mangos and asked him if they were any good. He took one look at them, took them off me and told me to go get him a new bag. So I went got a plastic bag and when I got back he had 4 mangos waiting for me. He put them in my bag I said thank you and left.
How did they turn out? Unbelievably good! I just had all 4 of them now and they had to be the best mangos I’ve ever had. I am now going to go back to Sultan Center tomorrow and look for the guy again since he is now officially my mango guy. All I need to do now is find a melon guy.
Picture from Buzberry
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43 Comments, add your own...
1. abbas | April 19th, 2009 at 12:05 am
find me a pomegranate guy while you’re at it lol
2. Daddy's Girl | April 19th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Good mangoes = alphonso mangoes. Thats the rule…
I wrote a post about the alphonso mangoes a while back… welcoming them at this time of year but it is not really hard to pick good mangoes?
first they must be green. As in, parrot green…
Preferably all green without spots or dirt
next, smell them… i don’t know how but it has a certain will turn out good smell …
Next, don’t put them in ur fridge, put them in a bowl together somewhere quiet and happy. My father keeps them in his cupboard, my late mother in law used to keep them underneath her bed, in about 3 days they will be ripe :D
Then comes the question of how to eat them?!?!?!!?!?1?
3. moose | April 19th, 2009 at 1:25 am
am i the only one that doesnt like mangos very much :(
4. abbas | April 19th, 2009 at 1:52 am
no
i too actually don’t like mangos :P
5. Anonymous | April 19th, 2009 at 2:30 am
ahahaha… well usually you just ask who ever is around and they should be able to help you pick out anything
6. Les | April 19th, 2009 at 3:37 am
you’ll find the melon guy is at Sultan Center Salmiyah
7. Dj Hams | April 19th, 2009 at 5:19 am
There are many kinds of mangoes. If you want sweet, choose the Honey mango. If you want nice large mangoes, go for Alphonso Mangos, which come from Goa, India. They were first cultivated by portuguese colonists in Goa, which was a former colony. There is also this kind of mango I tried in India, in which the top stem was pulled out and then I had to suck the juice. It tasted like the best mango juice in a mango!!!!
8. organic kuwait | April 19th, 2009 at 7:23 am
i know how to choose good alphonsos (taught and trained by the same indian guy i guess lol) water melons are still still a mystery THAT EGYPTIAN GUY JUST WONT GIVE ME HIS SECRET
9. Remote Control | April 19th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I have fruit consultants in every Co-op. In Sultan Center it’s the Indian guy for the mangoes and Egyptian for melons- I have another few in Jam3iyas here and there. I’m surprised you just started the consultation. You wont be able to shop right if they’re on sick leaves though.
10. TweeZ | April 19th, 2009 at 8:45 am
mangoes are rich in vitamin C, potasium, fiber and…believe it or not…calcium!
11. suspic | April 19th, 2009 at 9:06 am
I think every guy is a melons guy =O
12. Mr.pedro | April 19th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Fruit orgasm huh Mark :P
13. Giggles | April 19th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Suspic-my hubby is more of a thigh man… and thats too bad coz i got plenty of melons…
14. Abdullah | April 19th, 2009 at 11:30 am
1000 3afya Mark ;)
15. Bhutta | April 19th, 2009 at 11:45 am
There are a lot types of mangos.
In May/June / July you can get best mangos from Pakistan at Sultan.
And as Pakistani selecting good Mangos is not that hard. We mostly smell the mangos & done.
16. Realist | April 19th, 2009 at 11:58 am
This is a ripoff !! You can get it in Mishref Co-Op for 4.500 !! Also make sure they are green, so you can ripen them yourself. You can mix and match from several boxes. Just don’t slide in an extra mango ! Alphonso is the best this season.
17. Mark | April 19th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Realist: You can get the box for KD4.500? The KG is like KD2.450, I saw it at Carrefour for like KD1.600 I think but they were really crap. I should pass by Mishref.
18. suspic | April 19th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Giggles,
A bit too much..a bit too much..
19. Q80saracen | April 19th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
That’s great service. Its no wonder people prefer Sultan Center over il jam3eeya for even normal shopping nowadays, in spite of the huge markup. I like their fruit section the most though…they all look so fresh.
20. Mark | April 19th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I shop at Sultan for their Cereals and the fact the place looks good. Jam3iya looks too chaotic. I also like the Sultan Center in Rai cuz it reminds me of Costco.
21. JoJo | April 19th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Daddy”s Girl is right. 1 – The Best Brand is Alphoso from India
2- They should be recently Air frieghted in
3- Best to buy them by the box of 12 , at various
state of ripeness and eat then in sequence , while
keeping them in a little worm place (never in the
fridge unless they are ripe or you want to cool
off before eating which you can do by putting
in a bowl with cold water
4 I do not buy from Sultan but rather from a fruits
speciallist who calls me when new quality stuff
is in
5- With fruits ( like anything else ) never buy based
on price
22. Senorita | April 19th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Alvaro is one of the writers on Buzberry not a reader :-P
23. Mark | April 19th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
oops dont know how i missed that
24. Mark | April 19th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
fixed
25. Senorita | April 19th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Cool :-)
26. Basit | April 19th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
whoever thinks alphonso mangoes are the best have clearly never had a taste of pakistani mangoes.
trust me you guys, youre missing out, so go get yourself some pakistani mangoes when they come out, they are so good that youll realize youve been eating shit mangoes all your life
27. vampire | April 19th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
the melon guy it a myth
28. Anonymous | April 19th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
i don’t think there are shit mangoes Basit…
29. pearls | April 19th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
smell your mangoes
30. wi-fi | April 19th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
flash back ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ6e9siQyrY
:)
31. Basit | April 19th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
true …there is no such thing as shit mangoes … my bad :P
32. Dj Hams | April 19th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
The “honey mangoes” from pakistan are pretty good.
33. student | April 19th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
did you catch his name by any chance?
34. Giggles | April 19th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
suspic, I must have made you blush? LOL…
Any luck on the melon dude? I still need one of those.
35. TanGo | April 19th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Mango Lovers, try Carrefour when Egyptian mangoes season arrives. There is a particular kind (cannot remember the name) that is very green on the outside and has a rather short-life on the trees // like 1 month only for the whole season. That would be the best Mango ever // and costs like 700 fils per kilo during season.. Mark, I might drop you a line if I catch the season this year..
36. Alvaro - Buzberry | April 19th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
just buy your melons from the Saudi guys on the highway.. guaranteed quality.. but im not sure when do they come over.. surely after the elections i guess!
37. Akbar | April 19th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Kinda late comment, but the best way to find a sweet ripe mango is first by its firmness then smell it, the sweeter the smell the better it is. Remember there are hundreds of varities of mangoes. Alphanso mangoes are the ones you can cut, there are other variants that are purely for juice. They have anoyher way of finding their ripeness. It is like peelable oranges and juice oranges. Same logic applies to Mangoes too. Color is always misleading but smell is not. Dont go for too sweet smelling ones as they are overriped and would spoil in your hood by the time you reach home. Most important thing, Mangoes retain heat in them so it is always better to soak them in room temp. or colder water for atleast 30mins, same with water lemon too, although you refrigerate water lemon not soak in water =)
38. JoJo | April 20th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Pakistan mangos are too sweet for my taste with less aroma than Alphonso ..Another good mango is the very small type not bigger than a falt tanganeer.Called ( Al Fus ) meaning a peice of jewl ! with a very thinh flat seed. Interesting enough one of the guys came back from India & got me a box of 24 pcs.I ate 4 after mid night.Out of this world
39. b | April 20th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
first of all…don’t choose MANGOS that come in a box labeled manGOES.
40. HHH | April 20th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Hey Mark, it is not about the mangoes anymore, it is about the great service they have at Sultan center… Enjoy….
41. eleventh.st | April 22nd, 2009 at 6:01 am
I want mangos!
42. Bdayer | April 25th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I bet HHH works at sultan centre. Creepy comment…
43. Raymond | May 14th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Mark:
You should try Philippine mangoes…they’re the best rated in the world…especially the ones grown at Guimaras Island.
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