I just thought I'd let you know:

My very Thai mother saw me cutting a mango this way just the other day. I was scolded (to say the very least) for "not doing it the proper way", "for cutting it like farangs", and "for being a bad daughter". Of course, she was joking about that last bit...I hope.

Having given you that scenario, here is my mother's way to slice up a mango: peel it with a vegetable peeler--taking off another layer if you don't like the slightly sour outer layer (which adds a beautiful tang, really) then slice the flesh away from the seed in whatever sliver width you prefer.

It would be nice to have pictures of step 4, as it is the trickiest part in the process.

Gorgeous! Another way is to use a scissors to cut open a bag of frozen mango squares from Trader Joe's. They're decent! ;-)

Yes, (from the other comment) the Trader Joe's frozen squares are great for smoothies! I have cut a mango all of the ways talked about here. My favorite by far is my 'Mango Cutter' purchased from Linens'N'Things. Same idea as an apple corer but made for a mango! I don't even waste time trying to get the 'meat' from around the seed...call it the wastefulness of my generation.

I was taught, by my boyfriend who introduced me to mangoes and taught me to slice them as above, that the best way to deal with the flesh remaining on the seed was to retreat to the kitchen (either before the brunch guests arrive or after they leave), and gnaw it off like a very awkward corn-on-the-cob.

Yes, it's ungraceful, but to waste mango would be a greater sin. And if one can't be a hedonist with one's lover, with whom can one be a hedonist?

I feel the "Thai mother"'s pain. I'm from India, and we know how to eat mangoes there. We don't bother to peel them (unless we want to be fancy and serve it cut into little cubes with a fork, but that really goes against the grain). What my mom taught me is:
(1) Make 2 lengthwise cuts on the wide side of the mango, and then slice down the side so you get 3 long slices.
(2) Repeat on the other wide side.
(3) Slice off the skinny slices left on the two narrow sides.
(4) To eat, hold a slice by one end, and place the other end in the mouth, skin side up. Use the lower front teeth to remove the flesh as you pull the slice out. Turn the slice around to get at the flesh on the other end.
(5) When done with the slices, enjoy the flesh around the seed by holding it in the hand and eating all around it. Yes, it's a messy business, but oh, so delicious and satisfying!
The seed is the best part, and kids usually fight over it if there aren't enough to go around. Though in high season, each person typcially gets a whole mango. I'm appalled to read that there are folks who toss the seed out with all that yummy flesh on it!!
Trader Joe's frozen mango chunks are all right, in a pinch, but if you ever get a chance to visit an Indian grocery store, see if you can get frozen Alphonso mango slices - you can't beat the flavor. You also get frozen mango pulp from Indian mangoes, very convenient for smoothies or mango lassis.
Sorry about the long post, I'm just very passionate about mangoes :-)
(The above technique is best for "cutting" mangoes, which are usually not fibrous at all. The "juicing" mangoes are a different story altogether, and maybe I'll post another comment if I find that I didn't put all readers to sleep with this one!)

Elise
I have been using your method for a while and it is easy and clean. We refer to it as "Hedge Hogging a Mango".
With regard to step 4, frankly it is the cooks "duty" to eat the flesh from the seed.

Am from India too - but don't like getting my hands dirty (sticky) with all the juice..or wait until the mango is peeled and diced..

So an alternative way to cut is to cut the mango in the center in a circle around it

Then hold both ends and twist gently and pull - this should give you two pieces one shaped like a cup and the other a cup with the seed (alternatly, stretch your imagination and think of it as a rowboat and a sailboat)

Its easy to use a spoon to scrape out the flesh; for the seed scrape the flesh off; twist and it pops out; repeat and then continue to the cups

The above technique is best for "cutting" mangoes

Enjoy! :)

My filipino step family (and I) cut it the "thai" way. I like it in long slivers rather than cubes.

Excellent guide. I learned the very same style of mango cutting while I was living in Taiwan and when I moved back to the UK last year I was amazed how few people there knew how to do it. My skills were so prized that they got me to do a demonstration in front of the entire staff at the office where I worked part-time! Everyone was delighted to learn the method and we all got to eat mango afterwards so it worked out rather well.

I use Zyliss tomato peeler to peel mangos....it is very useful.......

I had no idea there were so many ways to eat a mango, but I have loved what I just read. We came to South Florida and I had my first mango ever.It was so yummy and juicy. I had no idea you could take out the seed. What do you do with it after you take it out?? Sorry, still new to the mango business. Hate to waste anything if I don't have too :-)

Simplify your life: buy the nifty single-purpose mango slicer made by Good Grips! About seven bucks on Amazon and at kitchen stores and supermarkets.

Seems there are many and varied ways to cut a mango AND get the pulp off the pit as well. This post's beautiful photos, alternative procedure, and wonderful comments add delightfully to the diversity!

I cannot imagine bothering to cut a mango to do anything with it but eat it on the spot....in private I guess........lol......first I cut the big pieces from either side and eat those...including the peel, then I eat as much of what;s left as the seed will allow me. If I need to use mango in a recipe I have to confess that I will have to get the frozen kind or maybe the kind that is in the jars, cause fresh mango does not make it far enough to get used in anything.
I must be a true mess on the mango question...lol...
ktj

OK since nobody asked, I'm going to write about juicing mangoes anyway, maybe because I'm a tad homesick right now. Juicing mangoes are too fibrous to eat directly. One way to enjoy these is to obviously extract the pulp from several mangoes, strain it and then enjoy it from a bowl. We have this as an accompaniment with a regular meal, typically at lunchtime.

But a more expedient method (if you just want a mango snack) is this: take the whole mango in your hand and gently begin squishing it all around. Don't be too forceful or you may end up squirting mango pulp all over yourself. You can hold the mango with one hand, two fingers holding down the stem end and the thumb supporting the bottom, and use the other hand to rotate the mango along the axis while gently squishing it continuously. Pretty soon you'll have "pureed" all the pulp in the mango without extracting it (if you've done it right). Then you take off the little stem bit at the top and suck the pulp right from the mango. When you've got most of it out, you press the seed out and eat all around it. And you're still not done yet (we don't waste anything in India!) - you turn the skin inside out and make sure you get all the bits sticking to it. The fibres remain attached to the skin and seed for the most part, and don't get embedded in your teeth as they would if you tried to eat this mango like a "cutting" one. An experienced person can do it without making a huge mess, but for kids, the mess is an integral part of the summer mango experience. They're made to sit down with very little on by way of clothes, when they're going to eat mangoes, and then it's directly to the bath afterwards :)

All I wanted from Google was how to cut a mango in pictures as I wanted to see how it was done instead of reading endless paragraphs on how and thankfully it/he/she directed me to your site...thanks heaps for your step by step directions - and with pictures

I am Filipino and we use to cut mangoes this way. I just didn't know some have different ways of having their mangoes cut. =)

At any rate, they are still sweet edible mangoes in the end. =)

PS: I like your blog and I visit it a lot! Thanks for sharing your recipes.

I like mango very much. In my village mango is available not in pcs but in weight measure in Mun. One mun is equal to 20 kg. I alone eat 15 to 20 mun in season.

Usually I use to remove mango skin manually and then eat straight away or cut in to pcs if required to be shared. Second method is hold vertical betwwen two fingers and with other hand press mango and do it from all side by rotating, after that remove stem portion and start suck the pulp till skin and seed remains.

I have learn the new method which I have to try and see.

this entry and the comments have been very helpful, thanks!

i live in taiwan, and make a mess of myself when i try to eat them in public... its good to know im not the only one with this problem. i always thought the taiwanese were laughing behind my back, now i know why i never see them trying to eat one that isn't pre-cut.

Interesting way to cut mangos! I will try it. I am from Thailand and we don't do that. I like your blog a lot and have been visiting many times.

T -that's a very funny story about your mother. :)

Lots of great info! I live in Hawaii and my mango tree is now dropping them by the hundreds. I'm trying to figure out how to process them all and what to make with them, and will go through these suggestions one by one!

By the way, I didn't like mangoes till I had one fresh off the tree. Kind of like the difference between a ripe, just-picked tomato and the kind you buy at the store. There's no comparison.

O.k., I have just eaten my very first fresh mango!
Wow! Talk about a gift from God! Delicious,by far the best fruit I have ever eaten. I cut my mango just like "T" that posted on August 20, 2006 12:20 AM. I didn't know how to cut one up it just seemed natural! Are there any mango cobbler recipes and if so please post a recipe! By the way I live in Mississippi.

Can someone tell me how to tell if a mango is the cutting kind or if it is the fibrous mashing kind? I love mangoes, but it seems that when I want to cut one, it is too fibrous. I love the method that PV from India describes how to eat a fibrous mango!

I was amazed at how avocado like a mango is. I was trying to peel one with no previous experience EVER and never had bought fersh before. Trying to be as healthy as possible and cant imagine that these are anything if not good for you. I did pretty good with cutting it in half and then using a grapefruit spoon to scrape out the flesh, but the results arent that attractive- but I did get most of the flesh.
I am going to definitely try the above method of cutting it- it looks like it has got to work. I am also glad to see that people eat around the pit- I don't like to waste any part of food, and you'll see me doing that now.
Cheers!~

When I lived in Sudan with my family, we learned to cut mangoes in the method shown in the photo demonstration. We took each half, with the criss cross cuts, turned it inside out so that the little squares protruded, and gave them to our toddlers to eat out of hand. We also called them 'hedgehogs'--don't remember where we got that name, but was interested to see the term used by Elise. And yes, the cook (me) always took the seed back in the kitchen to gnaw the flesh off.

Mangos are the best fruit messy but a real treat! I usually cut them this way but will try the "Indian" method around the seed and scoop out the flesh to see if that works better. Now I just wish we could grow a mango tree in California.

Mango is the most beautifull (in terms of taste and aroma) fruit in the world.
But don't fool your self into thinking what you buy in the superstore (in UK and US) is a mango, it is just a enginered fruit which has resitance against long transport periods and some more stuff.......
When I was a kid I used to eat mangoes (off my backyard tree) in the messy way, But now the kid in me is gone
If you ever get the privelige to try a fresh mango which has ripened on the tree, you would understand the term Gift from the Gods
do eat it alone (I'm telling you would'nt want to share) and whole heartedly and may be in a way a kid would.

Another way to peel a mango:
Score the mango all the way around from top to bottom, twice so that it's scored in quarters. Peel only one quarter. Cut slices down through the exposed flesh until you hit the stone. Then cut horizontially across the stone to release the slices. Do this with each quarter until all 4 quarters are peeled, sliced, and released from the stone.

I go to Anguilla every summer to eat mangoes. And how we do it. We bite the top of it to make a hole in it and we squeeze the mango from the outside like you do a toothpaste tube to get the toothpaste. That way we don't get our hands dirty. The only time we peel is when we get to the end and we want to get the "good" part of the mango and we eat the remainder of the mango from off the seed.

I use a technique similar to Rushi above, except I start at the top and cut through to the pit in about six "seams" like a basketball. The knife will cut deep where the pit is narrow, and shallow where the pit is wide. Then, I use my finger to slide the first slice off the pit. After that it's easy, the others can be separated from the pit with a finger or knife. I then take each crescent and score through to the peel to make little squares similar to the "hedgehog" shown above, but only one square wide.

Levetta said in Anguilla they squeeze like toothpaste "That way we don't get our hands dirty." But there is another reason.

I believe there are chemical properties on the inside of mango skin that are similar to poison ivy - some people react to it - some don't.
Not touching it is a good way to NOT have to find out!