Mango smoothies, mango cakes. Mango nachos and mango wine. Mango spareribs, mango fritters, mango chicken and mango pie.
At the 15th annual Mango Melee and Tropical Fruit Festival, held Sunday at the St. George Village Botanical Gardens on St. Croix, visitors could taste all that and more at vendors’ stalls, and at the festival’s Mango Dis, Mango Dat food competition.
“We have an abundance of mangos that grow here in season, and we wanted to come up with a way to show people there are other things you can do with mangos, and you usually get some incredibly creative dishes,” said Marilyn Chakroff, an employee of the United States Virgin Islands’ Department of Agriculture who also serves on the board of the Botanical Gardens.
The festival typically attracts between 3,000 and 4,000 visitors from across the greater Virgin Islands, Ms. Chakroff said.
See the June 30, 2011 edition for full coverage.