Ever heard of a variety of mango known as Anaras (pineapple)? There’s also an exquisite one called the Kohitoor! Both these types of mangoes from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, along with others like Bira, Molamjam, Saranga, Himsagar and Alphonso are all available at Aamantran! – a mango festival (an ABP Ananda endeavour) – currently on at Talatala grounds near South City Mall in Kolkata.
The Anaras mango has a pineapple flavour and smell, its pulp whitish like pineapples. Kohitoor is so delicate that each fruit – that weighs about 300-400 grams – must be wrapped in soft cotton to prevent the fruit from being soiled by the harshness of human touch!
This mango festival is gaining popularity over the past few years not just because of the availability of all kinds of mangoes grown in West Bengal and different parts of the country, but also due to the variety of sweets and savouries prepared from mango that are available in different stalls set up by sweet shops and restaurants.
From Felu Modak to Wow Momo! Hindusthan Sweets to Amantran – each stall has sweets and savouries specially prepared from mangoes.
There are a whole lot of sweets prepared from mango like mango roshogolla (even shaped like mangoes instead of being round!) mango filled sandesh, mango morobba (the fruit preserved as soft, sweet, translucent, chewy candy), mango mousse, mango patishapta (thin crepes made with semolina, refined flour and rice flour added with mango pulp, stuffed with mango pulp added with condensed, dried milk or kheer, so both the covering and the filling have the taste, smell and flavour of the mango), and mango rabri (rich, scraped milk solids added to mango pulp).
Lots of savouries are there too. There is crab in mango sauce, a number of kebabs cooked in mango sauce – the sweet, sour and hot taste smoothly blending into each other, adding to the flavour of the fish or meat. And for those brave souls willing to experiment, there are mango momos too!
And with the World Cup around, there are kheer replicas of the World Cup – in case you wish to take the cup home.
Aamantran! has been organised for two days (Saturday and Sunday). So just rush to the Taltala grounds today – it’s on from 12 noon to 9 pm.
