a happy place

Part of the deal with getting operated on is not being able to eat or drink anything for hours and hours and hours beforehand. This is the situation I found myself in on Monday evening. My knee surgery was scheduled for the next day and I had been strictly told no food or drink after 10pm. Which is, in itself, no big problem. It only becomes a problem when someone tells you you’re not allowed. Then it becomes the only thing you think of. Yes, self-torture. I’m very good at it.

We turned up at the hospital at 6:30am, as ordered. I was shown my bed and my ‘operation clothes’ – a bum-free smock with a ribbon at the neck, and a pair of hospital knickers. Very attractive. And then I was asked to wait. Without food or drink. At this point, I can feel my belly making those weird grumbling noises, pinching at my insides. My mouth is dry and my tongue is heavy. Now the other thing about getting operated on under general anaesthesia is that you get to pick your own “dream”. That’s what they call it. Apparently, if you focus on a specific place just before you get knocked out by all the drugs, then that’s where your mind ends up taking you. This is supposed to work with smiling too. The German made me practice smiling before the operation to make sure I went to a happy place.

My happy place was on the beach. Hot, with plenty of sun, a bit of wind, salty hair and brown skin. And mangoes. The lack of food and drink was making me a bit crazy and all I could think of was eating something to satisfy every single taste and flavour I could think of. All at once. My mother’s green mango salad does just that. It’s sweet, salty, juicy, fresh, and spicy, all at the same time. The German doesn’t like it much because he can’t get past the combination of fish sauce and mangoes. Yeah, it does look a bit wrong when I write it out like that. But it’s really not. It’s really right.

Eating green mangoes with salt is a pretty Asian thing. Actually, eating any fruit with salt is pretty Asian. I don’t know what it is but the salt makes any fruit taste more…fruity. Pineapples, especially if they are a touch on the unripe or acidic side, taste more pineapple-y once a bit of salt is sprinkled on it. Juicier too.

As it is, after the operation all I got was a glass of lukewarm water and my tray was graced with a dry piece of bread, plastic cheese, and ham. Oh, and apparently there is nothing wrong with my knee.

Mama’s Mango Salad

  • 1 fat, firm mango sliced into thin strips/slices (I’ve not been able to find any real green mangoes outside of Asia so I tend to buy really firm, slightly under-ripe mangoes in the supermarket – usually from peru or some other far-flung place. I’d definitely stay away from the really ripe, soft, yellow ones as they tend to fall apart in this salad. And they really are best eaten just as they are.)
  • Salt
  • Sugar
  • Chillies (fresh, dried, whatever you like and however much of it you like.)
  • Fish sauce
  • Lime juice

Like I said, this recipe is based on your own personal tastes and the type of mango you’ve got. The greener the mango, the more seasoning you’ll need. It’s all about finding the right balance. I tend to use about a tsp of salt and sugar each, a splash of fish sauce and at least half a lime. As for the chillies – I tend to put in enough so that my mouth burns.

   

1 Peel the mango and slice off thin strips into a big bowl. Don’t forget to munch and gnaw on the remaining mango flesh around the seed.

2 Add salt, sugar, and chillies to the mango slices and mix. The salt will start to draw juice out of the mangoes in the bottom of the bowl.

3 Add the fish sauce and lime juice and mix. Keep tasting to figure out when you’ve reached your happy place.