on mangoes

[holli]

You will never eat a good mango if you plan ahead. If you buy mangoes, unripe, at the grocery store, and wait and wait for them to ripen, and then finally eat them a little too soon because you're tired of waiting, the mangoes will be stringy and disappointing. The best mango is the one you buy on impulse at the bodega down the block, because you've been walking and you're sweaty and you want to eat a mango right this second. That mango will be perfect. Just ripe enough, just sweet enough, not stringy or bruised. You'll scrape the flesh off the skin, off the pit, and be a little sad that there isn't any more, and then you will remember that you bought two mangoes. The second one is in the fridge, and it'll be ice-cold when you eat it tomorrow, just right for the un-air-conditioned house.

That doesn't count as planning ahead, though. The mango won't hold it against you.