Food - Vietnam - Green Mango with Spicy Dip

Is this an authentic Vietnamese snack? I'm not quite sure, because green mangoes are also very popular in Thailand and Laos. I ate this for the first time in Vietnam, where it is a staple in the street vendors’ assortment of fruits. Besides sweet yellow mango, watermelon, coconut ' in its entirety’, and pineapple, you can also buy small plastic bags with green mango slices. 

The bags are sealed with a skewer which also serves as a stick to eat your fruit, how convenient! As far as I understand, the green mango is a different variety than the yellow mango, rather than it being an unripe mango. For this snack, you can of course use an unripe, yellow mango, but it will have a slightly more acidic taste than its green brother.

My first reaction when I saw this snack was: “herbs with fruit?" This is not really like we do things in Belgium, as we mostly combine fruit with ice cream or a pancake. But it is the classic combination of Asian flavours: the sweet or sour of the fruit with the spicy and salty of the dip that works almost every time. I, myself, am crazy about it and it's my favourite snack at the hottest time of the day.

Photo credit: www.aaplemint.com

What you need:

• A green mango or unripe yellow mango or another piece of fruit
• For the dip: paprika powder, 1 chilli, shrimp paste and salt

How to make it :

• Cut the mango (or other fruit) into strips.
  
• For the dip: fry the shrimp paste (a little bit) in some oil and add crushed or chopped fresh chilli. Allow to get crisp and add the paprika powder. The dip should form a kind of powder that easily sticks to your fruit. Allow the dip to cool.
  
• If you don’t have shrimp paste, just use salt to mix with your chilli peppers.
  
• Happy dipping!

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