Topical Fruits

So I experienced the most vivid food memory, one that made me laugh. Standing in our kitchen, doing the gloriously icky, painstaking, and enjoyable task of making aamras (runny squeezed mango pulp is the closest English approximation, often with added sugar to balance the sour, or with a dash of milk) for dinner, I stood with one fleshy mango seed (koy) in each fist and squeezed, letting all the juice and pulp from it run into the container below. When I opened my hands, the koyi were completely juiced out. No further processing required - just dump them on the pile of skins.

I make less of a mess now...

I giggled as I realized I'd finally attained one of two food related superpowers that as a child I used to think only grown-ups have: one squeeze mango koy processing! (Oh, and let it be said that no one, but no one in living memory, ever came close to juicing a fleshy mango koy in one squeeze like my grandma, Mai aaji.)

I was transported to a kitchen from my childhood, where like a starving doggie I would wait by my mom's and my aaji's side as they prepared the day's aamras. Every discarded skin, every processed koy was handed to me for a final, slobbery clean up job. I never wanted the koy that aaji processed, because it was far too well squeezed - mom's koy however usually had a few fleshy bits still on. She spoiled me rotten, that woman...