Sonam Kapoor : I love the summer. Yes it’s intensely hot and humid here in Mumbai. You can feel the tar melt under your colourful kolhapuri chappals, makeup refuses to stay on your face and the embarrassing sweat patches just keep forming on you’re clothes whose stains never seem to go. So what is it about the summer besides the numerous cold baths, international or hill station travels that actually makes staying put on flat land worthwhile! Hapoos as we living in Maharashtra call it, or the delicious ripe amazing Alphonso as the rest of the world calls it.
Once a year this delicious and very expensive fruit comes in season, and it makes even the ‘loo’ in Delhi worth bearing. It’s like God’s way of rewarding us that clearly says that this is your wonderful prize for bearing this excruciating heat.
For me it’s the best replacement for dessert. I eat one mango a day in the night right before I sleep, it’s a reward for being good with my meals, withstanding the heat of Bombay and dealing with the stress of work. Even my dietician condones it and that my friend is my golden ticket to indulgence.
I like all forms of mango ... whether it is raw, ripe, cooked, pickled (achaar) chutneyed or decorative. I even like it as a print on my clothes (paisley). Even though Alphonso is my favourite, I can eat every other type of mango. And to break the long standing myth, mango is not ‘heaty’. I’ve never once broken out into a pimple or heat boil because of my precious mango. Obviously the whole world now knows of almost every Indians’ obsession with the king of fruits and has decided to cash in on it.
Dunkin’ Donuts has created a special mango flavour just for India, ice cream brands, cold drinks and even frozen yogurt is mango flavoured. But I’m a mango snob and I’m just not ok with artificial flavours of mango in my dessert or drink. I want the real stuff! I want that pulpy rich taste that comes from the real deal and I will not compromise on that ever!