陵水 Língshuǐ calls itself the 芒果之乡 máng guǒ zhī xiāng, the home of the mango, and it is not an idle boast. The county sits on the south-east coast of 海南, at roughly the same latitude as the northern edge of the tropics, with a hot, wet sea-facing climate and just enough of a dry season to push a mango tree into flowering. It has the deep, well-drained sandy-loam soil that the tree wants, and it grows the fruit on a scale that makes it one of the island’s real agricultural exports. The 陵水 mango is early, too, ripening in the spring before the mainland orchards have started, which is the quiet reason the county’s fruit commands a premium at market.
The mango the county grows in the greatest quantity is the 台农 Tái nóng, the Tainong, a variety that survives well on the island and produces a dense, sweet, almost fibre-free fruit. Alongside it are the 贵妃 Guìfēi, a red-blushed mango named for the imperial concubine, the 金煌 Jīn huáng, a large and mild mango, and the 澳芒 Ào máng, a big sweet one. In 陵水 the fruit is eaten at two very different moments. The first is green: a firm, unripe mango is peeled, shredded into thin strips with a tool that looks like a nutmeg grater, and eaten as a salad with a dressing of lime, chilli, salt and sometimes a little sugar, crunchy, sour and hot at once, and a common snack of the schoolyard and the market. The second is ripe, where the same fruit is allowed to turn a deep gold and eaten as it is, juice running down the wrist.
There is more to the 陵水 mango than the fruit itself. The county makes 芒果干 máng guǒ gān, the dried mango that is one of the most common souvenirs of 海南, and 芒果肠粉 máng guǒ cháng fěn, a dessert of ripe mango set in a roll of coconut milk and starch that is cut into pieces and served chilled, the sweet answer to the savoury rice rolls of Guangdong. The mango is also the basis of a 芒果冰 máng guǒ bīng, the shaved-ice bowl piled with fruit and syrup, and of juice that is pressed to order. The season runs roughly from March to June, when the roadside stands between 陵水 and the rest of the island are stacked with the fruit and the price falls to almost nothing.
Words and Names
芒果 máng guǒ is mango and 陵水 Língshuǐ the county, so 陵水芒果 is the Lingshui mango. 贵妃 Guìfēi is the red-blushed variety, 台农 Tái nóng the Tainong, 金煌 Jīn huáng the large mild one and 澳芒 Ào máng the big sweet one. 青芒果 qīng máng guǒ is the green, unripe mango eaten shredded; 芒果干 máng guǒ gān is the dried fruit, 芒果肠粉 máng guǒ cháng fěn the rolled dessert and 芒果冰 máng guǒ bīng the shaved-ice bowl.
What the Locals Know
Try the shredded green mango salad before you are won over by the ripe fruit, because it is the more distinctive eating and the one you will not find done the same way elsewhere. Eat the ripe fruit in season, from March to June, when the roadside price is a fraction of the supermarket one. A mango should smell fragrant at the stem and give slightly when pressed; if it is rock hard, it needs a day or two on the counter. Ask for the 金煌 if you want a large, mild one and the 贵妃 if you want a sweeter, more aromatic bite. And in the summer heat, the 芒果冰 with a little condensed milk is the county’s favourite way to finish a day.
flowcloud would say that a place which grows an early, sweet, and exportable fruit, and which eats it both green and ripe, both savoury and sweet, has found a way to think about a plant that most places only ever see one way.
Where to find it: the fruit stalls and roadside stands of 陵水 and along the coast roads toward 三亚 and 万宁, the 陵水 market in the county town, and the orchard shops outside 新村镇 Xīncūn zhèn. A good in-season mango runs ¥5 to ¥15 a jin depending on variety. The shredded-green-mango salad and the 芒果肠粉 are sold at the cold-dessert and snack stalls of the county town and the 疍家 raft restaurants of 新村港. 陵水 is an hour or so from 三亚 by road, on the east coast.