In Praise of the Mangonada
I had my first mangonada probably 8 or 9 years ago? My very dear friend Blanca introduced me to them. Blanca’s from San Antonio, and grew up with these delicious summer treats. If you’re in Mexico, or a part of the US with a significant Mexican population, you can probably find these at a paleteria near you.
If you’ve never tried one, it is a flavor bomb unlike anything else: intensely sweet and savory and tart and spicy all at once. The chamoy element is a little like umeboshi, and is probably descended from champoy/kiamoy brought to Mexico by Filipino immigrants brought to the new world by Spanish colonizers. And their kiamoy was probably descended from li hing mui, which was brought to the Philippines by Chinese immigrants! God, I love food stories like this. They are my very favorite. Even though they’re often all tangled up with complicated stories of violent colonization, I love learning about how migrating populations exchanged food knowledge with different cultures and created brand new dishes that had never existed before. The mangonada could never have existed without Chinese people traveling to the Philippines, and then Filipino people traveling to Mexico. And then I only get to eat them because of Mexican people traveling to Chicago! So many journeys had to happen to bring this dish into being, and I can just walk up the street and buy one for $4.00 at Paleteria Arco Iris on Belmont.
Shameless Self Promotion:
I regret to inform you I have once again been adding new designs to my Threadless shop!! Including a brand new pizza puff drawing. (^_^) There’s also a sale on again: use the code SUMMER15 for 15% off everything until 6/17.
Upcoming Things:
I will be exhibiting at CAKE Chicago June 28 and 29 at the Irish American Heritage Center! Books are ordered! New business cards too! Let’s Make Dumplings appears to be on backorder right now, but I still at least a handful of copies that I’ll have on hand.
I will also be at the Wisconsin Book Festival Fall Celebration in Madison in October, and I’ll at a Chicago Public Library event at Sulzer Regional Library in December.
Hey Sarah, how’s the book going:
I have 144/192 pages outlined. I have to outline 48 more pages in the next two weeks, and then get all the art placed in my inDesign document. Then the publisher will work on proofreading, and I’ll spend the next six weeks working on nothing but coloring.
What I’m into lately:
Currently listening to the audiobook of House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias! I’m not very far into it but it’s already spooking me out in the best way. It’s intense and evocative and surprisingly relatable, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.
What Toki’s into lately:
The city trimmed all the trees on my block, and they cut down all the branches the squirrels were using to come to our windows! No more squirrel buddies taunting Toki. (T_T) In his newfound spare time, Toki’s taking on a supervisory art direction role for the cocktails book.
