Mango in Thai Cooking - Aroy Mak Mak

The Thai hot season is mango season. In March, April and May, markets pile up mangoes in every shade from hard green to deep gold, and mango sticky rice appears on every street corner.

Thais love mangoes at both ends of ripeness: soft, golden and perfumed as a dessert, and hard, green and sour as a snack with salt, sugar and chilli.

Pronunciation	ma-muang
Flavour	Ripe: honeyed, floral and fragrant. Green: crisp and sour
Season	March to May, peaking in April
Eaten	With sticky rice, in salads, green with chilli salt

Varieties

Nam Dok Mai (“flower nectar”): slender, golden, very sweet and fibre-free. The classic mango for mango sticky rice.
Ok Rong: rounder, intensely fragrant and very sweet, the old favourite for sticky rice.
Mahachanok: long, with a red-orange blush and a slightly tangy sweetness; often exported.
Khiao Sawoei: eaten green and crunchy; it is sweet even when unripe.
Kaew and Fa Lan: used green and sour, for salads and dipping.

How Thais eat it

Ripe, it is served with sweet coconut sticky rice (khao niao mamuang), or just sliced and chilled. Green, it is cut into long slices and dipped in prik kluea, a mixture of sugar, salt and dried chilli, or in nam pla wan, a thick sweet fish-sauce syrup with shallots and chilli. Shredded green mango goes into yam mamuang, a sour salad with dried shrimp, cashews and shallots, and is served alongside fried fish.

Choosing and storing

For ripe mangoes, choose fruit that smells sweet at the stem end and gives slightly when pressed; colour is not a reliable guide. Ripen hard mangoes at room temperature in a paper bag, then keep them in the fridge for a few days. For green mango, choose very firm, heavy fruit with no yellow patches.

How to cut it

Slice the two “cheeks” off either side of the flat stone. Peel them, or score the flesh in a grid and push the skin inside out. Trim the remaining flesh from around the stone.

Cook’s tip
Outside Asia, look for Ataulfo (also called honey) mangoes from Mexico or Kesar and Alphonso from India. They are the closest in texture and sweetness to Nam Dok Mai.

Recipes with Mango

ของหวาน

Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Niao Mamuang)

Steamed glutinous rice soaked in sweet, salty coconut milk, served with ripe mango and a spoonful of coconut sauce.

45 min · Easy