Mangos are wonderful things. When they're good, they're a source of almost divine eating pleasure. Today they were very good, I knew they would be because I bought them from the same shop I did last night.

I have been looking forward to mango season since the last chaunsas shot up in price before finally disappearing from the market last year. I left Jaipur - and India - before the first wave of chemically ripened and somewhat unripe mangos, with their slightly sour soapy taste, had given way to the mangos of the season proper. On returning a few days ago I tried all the different mangos in the Paharganj fruit market - green langras from Banaras, massive yellow, southern mangos with a name beginning with k and a reddish blush, long slender dusheries from Lucknow and bright yellow safedas. But I somehow managed to only pick mangos ranging from mouth puckeringly sour to just alright until I got into conversation with the man who sold me these mangos.

He told the order of seasonality - safedas were at their peak this week but would finish in 10 days or so, dusheries, although most of the push-carts in the market were piled high with all different sizes of them in shades from lime to pastel green and yellow, they wouldn't have their full flavour for another week and a half and after that, and only then, came langras.

He showed me the difference between the chemically ripened, cosmetically superior safedas and the naturally ripened but much tastier ones. He showed me how to look for the little black dots to show ripeness, just as on a banana and to squeeze very very gently to judge the texture.
Yesterday I bought just over a kilo and ate them in front of the Holland/Ivory Coast match, even the one I was going to save for breakfast the next day.

Mangos for me are extremely addictive. I get lost in the sweet heady juice and the fragrant flesh and I'm driven to the point where I can't stop until I've gorged myself on all the mangos in the bag. From now it'll only get worse till the season ends, but that's ok, it's part of the reason I came back.

Mangos are one of my absolute favourite things to eat and they are the first thing to go on my new list of Little Pleasures.