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Mangoes by the "kaing"

Mangoes are available all year round but summer is the best time for these luscious fruits. And indeed, even if summer has ended few days (or even weeks ago), it's last "hurrah" just came in as it was about to end. A big batch of mangoes came as expected when I noticed a lot of people in the backyard one day. They were harvesting the "fruits of their labour" - they were the ones who sprayed these mango trees by then and as a courtesy we were handed our share. Of course it came in green and a few days after, it slowly turned yellow.Now that's where the fun begins, as this signals the never ending mangoes we had, have and about to have. Aside from eating them as they are - I like them peeled and eaten with barehands, it seems inevitable that it will surely make its way into something cool - literally. Like this big bowl of - can this be termed as halo halo? - just layers of pureed mango, milk & sugar mix, shaved ice and fresh mangoes.Aside from this, it is now quite ordinary for us to make mango shake twice a day as these mangoes start to ripen fast. And there's nothing much better than using (almost) over ripe mangoes in making shakes. They may look unappealing outisde - those black spots, but there remains no trace of sourness some "good looking" mangoes unknowingly hides. Ofcourse, mango floats, and even mango cakes are also of the home made goodies these luscious fruits bring in when they are in season and comes by the "kaing".

PS Kaing is the local term for big handwoven baskets made from thin bamboo strips(?). The tagalog term escapes my memory at this time. A much bigger container, some almost as big as cars is termed tabungos and are usually storage for palay - unprocessed rice grains

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