FOOD & DRINK FLASH IN THE PAN
MANGONEADA WITH CHAMOY
Photo by Ari LeVaux.
Enjoy Some Bold Mexican Chamoy BY ARI LEVAUX
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alsa and guacamole get more glory, but chamoy, lesser known among Mexican condiments, might be more important. This fruit-based sauce is sweet, sour, salty, bitter and muy picante, all at once, a complete flavor that goes with everything. It embodies a certain boldness that’s common in Mexican food. The cuisine is alive and evolving, guided by deep traditions but not bound to them, interconnected by an ethos that finds it perfectly sensible to unroll a tamale onto a hot dog bun. Chamoy tastes vaguely like BBQ sauce, and I love shoveling it into my mouth atop crispy pork. Most any other meat is equally chamoy-able. And if it’s chamoyable, it’s enjoyable. Smeared onto a slice of melon, chamoy adds a surprising balance. On the rim of a frosty pint glass, it makes your beer more quenching. Mixed with mayo, you might as well put the stuff into an IV bag so I can mainline it. We can direct our gratitude to a salted plum recipe from the other side of the world. Chamoy is a legacy of a small Japanese Mexican population. Originally made with salted Japanese plums called ume, the sauce is now made with dried apricots and prune
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plums. This chamoy, which I am going to tell you how to make at home, is relatively wholesome compared to the corn starch, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate and Red No. 40 that comprise most of the stuff from the store. Those bottled chemicals are a faint approximation of the real chamoy, which has only fruit, lime, chile, salt and sugar. My favorite way to use chamoy, especially in summer, is in a brilliant dish called a mangoneada. It’s basically a mango popsicle, or mango sherbet, that has been treated with chamoy. Only in Mexico might we find a food that is at once too spicy, too sour, too salty, and too sweet, all at the same time, and yet have it all work out so perfectly. There are many ways to arrange and serve this cold, sassy treat, my favorite being a mango popsicle that you dip into a well of chamoy. So today we have two recipes. The one for chamoy is the most important, because this sauce will make you a true Mexican chef. But the one for mangoneada is also crucial, because it might be your favorite way to use chamoy, and the best thing you try this summer.
