poll inspired by unfortunate kitchen events

[ratcreature]

So that mishap where you are not attentive enough before trying to use a fairly expensive fruit and it turns out not to have fully ripened yet, and thus your fruit isn't the tasty anticipated treat, but just hard and gross and full of disappointment. Which is sadder, ending up with an unripe mango or an unripe avocado?

Poll #19481 Unripe fruit

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20

View Respondents

Which is sadder?

View Answers

an unripe avocado
9 (45.0%)

an unripe mango
9 (45.0%)

a third fruit is even worse an I'll comment with it
2 (10.0%)

Comments

[goss]

You can actually eat and cook the unripe mangoes, but not the avocados.

We usually caramelize and then add curry to the green mangoes to make a cooked dish. Or you can make a sort of chutney/salad thing with salt, pepper and cilantro mixed into thin slices of the raw green mango. Both of which are quite popular here. :)

ETA: Recipes! :D

[goss]

Use raw green mango to make this:
https://spiceboxtravels.com/2014/04/11/trinidadian-mango-chow/

Cook the green mango to make this:
http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/curried-mango-trinidad-241611

Re: ETA: Recipes! :D

[ratcreature]

Thanks, that's good to know. Though I'm not sure my recent sad mango was so unripe as to qualify as "green". It just wasn't soft and juicy enough to easily blend into my yogurt which I wanted it for.

I think unripe mango make me sadder because while I like avocado okay, mango is my favorite fruit, so it is a bigger disappointment.

[laurajv]

dammit now i am hungry and want mango chutney on spicy chickpeas

[sholio]

I was going to say "mango" (I don't mind underripe avocado; most of them are like that here), but then I remembered what underripe red bananas are like, and OMGBLAARGH. It's like eating highly astringent chalk that sucks all the moisture out of your mouth, and it tastes vaguely cucumberlike. I genuinely thought for a minute I'd eaten something poisonous, but then I checked out the internet and nope, that's just what they're like before they ripen.

[ratcreature]

I don't think I ever had a red banana, ripe or otherwise. Here you only get yellow ones, and in better stocked or Asian or African market the starchy ones, plantains? The ones you have to cook anyway. Sometimes there are small yellow ones.

Re avocadoes: Don't your underripe ones ripen? I usually buy mine a bit unripe so they aren't bruised and then wait for a bit. And hopefully eat them at the right moment.

[sholio]

Here you only get yellow ones, and in better stocked or Asian or African market the starchy ones, plantains? The ones you have to cook anyway.

We get those, and also different kinds of small ones on an infrequent basis. I like the small ones better than the big ones; I'm not at all a fan of large bananas, but the little ones I've had are all tastier (well, except when unripe, BLECH) and have a more interesting variety of flavors.

I do put avocados out to ripen, and of course they're best when perfectly ripe, but a lot of the ones we get here just go straight from underripe to spoiled, so I'll often err a little on the side of underripeness rather than risk losing it completely.

[minim_calibre]

Unripe persimmon is the saddest fruit.

[ratcreature]

I'm not sure I've had that (dis-)pleasure. I'm not a big fan, so I only buy them when they are really cheap here (which I think is when the main season is for them in Israel?), and the worst was that they were a bit too firm, but didn't taste awful. Maybe the fruits here are different variety than in the US?

[lilacsigil]

Unripe mango is still usable, unripe avocado is a disappointment for the ages. Especially as we have to travel 50km each way to buy fruit and veg, which we only do once a week, so we have to try to plot out the date that each item will be ripe and plan meals accordingly!

[ratcreature]

Yikes. Logistically getting both mango and avocado takes only crossing the street for me, or sometimes a short walk if I pick a different place -- as far as food infrastructure goes, in easy walking distance are more than half a dozen supermarkets, two organic supermarkets, four green grocers, two regular butchers (not that I use them), one horse butcher (another especially for venison closed last year), a fishmonger and I don't know how many bakeries (more than ten). Plus a weekly market. The only foodstuffs I regularly use public transport to get is things from Asian an Middle Eastern groceries because none are nearby.

However most mango you get here in normal supermarkets are sold somewhat unripe so I always have to wait between buying and eating. And I really like mango, whereas I am more indifferent towards avocado. It's okay but not my favorite. So misjudged mango makes me sadder. Also I didn't realize you could cook with the unripe ones.

[st_aurafina]

Mango will ripen for ages but avocado has a short window. Plus I've usually made plans for the avo and if it hasn't ripened in the time window I've given it, that's a bummer.

But both are expensive and annoying when they're not ripe on time, I agree.

[ratcreature]

That's true. With mango it's easier to be on the safe side, while with avocado it goes from just soft to brown spots and then grossness fast.

I had trouble recently because it has been cold outside and my hanging fruit basket is near the window so it hasn't been quite regular "room temperature" there.