Donna Erickson’s Best Bites

Slurp and savor this Mango Salsa

“The mangoes are falling,” chanted a chorus of excited, young schoolkids in Haitian Creole, while I navigated a rocky, muddy path in Haiti as a program volunteer with the global health organization Medical Teams International (www. medicalteams.org). Sure enough, within seconds, a large, rosy-red and orange mango from a canopy of trees overhead landed with a thud right next to me.

I quickly learned the kids’ way of biting into the outer skin (after I washed it), removing it with my fingers, then devouring the fruit slurp by slurp first one half and then the other. There’s nothing quite as delicious as a tree-ripened mango.