A farewell to aams

With the mango season ending, we decided to send off the king of fruits in style, by consuming it till it consumed us. Baked, blended, curried, fried and tossed like a salad Janaki Viswanathan ate mangoes in as many ways as she could. All week.

Mangoes are gold-skinned and taste of cardamom mixed with almonds, but only Arabs can afford them... according to Behram Contractor (Busybee) in one of his Round and About columns. Agreed. Which was why I stayed off the king of fruits all summer. But last week, there was a sudden urge to sink my teeth into anything, anything yellow, sweet and succulent that answered to the name 'mango'. So, bless the abyss that is my stomach, I did... and lived to tell the tale.

DAY ONE
It's Bengali food for lunch and a double dessert. A nice heavy breakfast (minus mangoes) and I'm off.

Oh! Calcutta
There's no Alphonso here but kacha-pukka aam instead. It's tough understanding the names of the dishesu00e2u0080u00a6 eating is easier. Especially the Aam postar bur. A lightly fried (I say lightly) cutlet made of shredded mango blended with potatoes, mustard and poppy seeds. A little tangy, a little crunchy... bliss.

Next up is a raw banana and potato dumpling dripping with mango gravy, the Kanch kola aam tok. Even better is the flaky crisp luchi which goes brilliantly with Aam duje chingre, prawns in a kacha-pukka aam sauce... salt-sweet-sour all at once. But it's the dessert that steals the show the Noren-gur mango ice cream. The non-preservative non-egg ice cream is made from a date extract topped with crumbling jaggery.
The ice cream is hardly sweet but the toppings and the bed of diced Alphonso more than make up. This is what they call guiltless sweetness.

Bachelorr's
A train whizzes past five feet away from this tiny stall at Chowpatty. But the clientele and the staff at Bachelorr's (did you know there were two Rs?) are not bothered as they load plastic cup after plastic cup with diced mangoes and feather-light cream. The proprietor turns stylist for the photographer, holding the cup on a paper napkin and placing ripe Alphonsos equidistantly so that "effect aayega." The cream is light as air, the mango just ripe... it's sin in a plastic cup.u00a0

Theobroma
The counters are packed with pastries and the tables with customers. I barely manage to grab my plate of Mango tart and make my escape outdoors. Afternoon sun overhead. Cool, gooey yellow-orange-topped fruity something in my hand. Can I have another please?

DAY TWO
In an attempt to have a purely aam day, the day begins with only a cup of coffee.

InterContinental Marine Drive
The sun is unforgiving but the view from the InterContinental Marine Drive makes you forget. At the seventh floor is the Dome restaurant overlooking the sea, a chatty chef and his creations. As we wait for the dishes to make the long journey up, Chef Amit Bharadwaj keeps up the mango mood talking about a cheesecake stuffed with mangoes and baby gulab jamuns he once concocted. Sadly, it's not on offer today. The Shrimp salad with mango is the first to arrive. It's pungent courtesy the red pepper, sweet, umm, because of the mango, and the shrimp adds a lovely saltiness to it all. Grilled scallops with mango salsa, and mango sushi (which I've been most curious about) make it to the table together. The scallops again have that salt-sweet-sourness that works. The mango sushi has no fish but the icy tight packets of rice have little bits of Alphonso hidden away. Yum! Chef keeps up cheery conversation about mango pickles, ice creams and European mangoes which taste of betel-nut... I phase out a little.u00a0

J W Marriott
These four-five plates of desserts, these are what are going to send me to hell. The Basil-spinach-mango cake looks most interesting. It's sweet but not too much so and the mango isn't predominant. There are greens in thisu00e2u0080u00a6 healthy! Oops, spoke too soon. The chocolate bomb, a woody brown creamy clump is set on the table. It looks as lethal as the Chocolate Mascarpone Cup looks delicate. But pray, how does one get to the chocolate in the latter? Do you finish the mango slices and the cream cheese and then tear apart the cup or do you politely leave it? Oh wait, there's a Mango Frangipani to finish too. If my stomach had a mouth (and thank goodness it doesn't), it would probably complain to human rights.

Sahara Star
Don't let the crusted amphitheatre-like fau00c3u00a7ade deceive youu00e2u0080u00a6 the hotel's indoors are beautiful. German Executive Chef Jan Seibold patiently shows me around and talks of travelling in the Mumbai local ("Of course I don't! I'm mad but not so mad"), how he came to be in Mumbai ("Uhu00e2u0080u00a6 I arrived by plane") and his favourite form of mango ("mango lassi"). He watches amused as my eyes light up when the dishes are set on the table at The Ocean.

The Thai prawn salad with mango only affirms the fact that seafood and Alphonsos are a brilliant combination. The Mango chicken tikka is rather mild but the Fish stuffed with coconut-crusted mango more than makes up. The fish crumbles to the touch, the mango providing a sweet break before the next layer of sea-salt takes over. Mmm!

But we're not quite done. There are desserts to be dealt with. Mango tart and vanilla ice cream, Mango tiramisu and Mango sauce infused with lemongrass. I can barely make it to the door in my mango high. But there's one more stop for the day.

Mad Over Donuts
Mango Maango, Seu00c3u00b1or Alphonso, Little Miss Mango and Super-Mangou00e2u0080u00a6 all doughnuts filled to bursting with mango custard and topped with mango or chocolate sauce or chunks or both. Sniff them, lick off the frosting but somehow I can't tell the flavours. Have I become immune to the taste of mango? It's a sign. The day must end here.

DAY THREE
I dreamt that it was a mango that fell on Sir Isaac Newton's head, not an apple. Madness is setting in. But no stopping nowu00e2u0080u00a6 I have mangoes to go before I sleep.

ITC Maratha
There's aam papad and there's amba-batt. And then there is the Mango paper pouch made by Sous Chef Manish Thakur. Encrusted with black sesame seeds, these surprisingly tough covers hold a treasure of diced (what'd you expect) mangoes and mascarpone cream. And to contrast the sweetness, there's a scoop of in-house-made tangy Raspberry sorbet in its own wafer cup and a drizzle of berries sauce. The Mango crepe gratin with butterscotch sauce and caramelised sugar is next. The chef explains how he made it but the scent of the butterscotch sauce makes me light-headed. I also have Mango phirni and Mango kulfi. Oh mother of all that's sweet and divine!

5 Spice
Mango, mango, see what you mean to me... cheesecakes and gateaux. The Mango gateaux is served with mango ice cream. Over the top? Not really. The flavours blend rather well and thankfully the gateaux is only just sweet. The cheesecake is creamy, the crust thinner than I'd have liked it. I'm beginning to feel a little punished. Maybe I ought to call it a day? But there's still another place I can deal with...

InterContinental 24/7
Perched on a bar stool overlooking the sunny pool, I take random sips from a Mango
Chi-Chi mocktail, a Frozen Mango Daiquiri and the delicious Mango Sangria. I'm at my happy aam place now. More mangoes? Sure. Day four, here I come.

DAY FOUR
There's only enough time for one place today... no complaints about that.

Olive Bar & Kitchen
The white and wheat du00c3u00a9cor here is set off nicely by my once-favourite fruit (can you guess why?). Another cheesecake is on offer here, and it's sugar free. The drizzle of mango sauce, the fleshy little fresh mango globules and a melt-in-your-mouth cheesecake topped with thin mango slices... the day just has to be good. If I still had a doubt, the Freshly brewed mango cocktail puts it to rest. It's liquid sunshine in a tall glass, garnished with a piece of (okay, last time I'm saying it) mango. Cold, sweet and bitter. And so, I'm finished. Farewell, mango, it's going to be year before I can set my eyes on you again. Thank god.