Mangos and Moustache March

Mango season that is! The local markets are chock full of my all-time favorite fruit, and they only cost 10 lempira each! That’s somewhere in the ballpark of 55 US cents! This means that it’s time for another (much anticipated) episode of IRON CHEF HONDURAS (thunderous applause)!

What can’t you do with the miraculous mango? If you can think of something, please tell me. Thus far I have thought of all kinds of intriguing recipes from mango chicken to mango vodka fruit salad. The latter was particularly popular at our Mardi Graz party at the beginning of lent.

Alas however, most of the mangos I buy don’t make it to the “exploratory cooking” stage, because as soon as I peel and slice the fruit it mysteriously disappears. I can’t help myself, nothing beats a ripe mango.

I have been able to control myself long enough to create some DELICIOUSE chismol de mango (mango salsa.) Take the following, dice all the fruit/veggies, mix, and enjoy with corn chips:

-          2 mangos

-          2 green bell peppers

-          1 red onion

-          Fresh cilantro to taste

-          2 large pinches of salt

-          1 – 2 tsp. cumin

I have eaten nothing but a massive bowl of chismol de mango for dinner twice this week already.

In addition to it being mango season, it is also moustache March! I’ve been rockin’ out the ‘stache for the past three weeks, with various accessories (soul patch, side burns, etc.) As the end of March is rapidly approaching, I have gone pure moustache for the remainder of the season. Having finished shaving I looked up and received a bit of a shock, finding a young version of my father staring back at me. I’ve been told that I look a lot like my dad, but I’ve never really seen it so intensely until now.

Jeff says I look like a cop, which I suppose is a good thing considering that’s what I aim to be one day. And speaking of Jeff, he too is growing a moustache for March. In fact, the two of us convinced most of the male members of the OAF to take part! I’ll try to take a picture of all of us next week…and then I’ll try to actually post some of my many, many pictures that I have been accumulating on my computer.