[Sca-cooks] OOP - Green Peppers and Mangoes

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Bronwynmgn at aol.com:
>In a message dated 12/30/2004 11:29:17 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, 
>kingstaste at mindspring.com writes:
>
><<The word 'mango' is used in some areas to refer to green  peppers or
>stuffed green peppers. Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana,  Illinois
>and Missouri are all states that I have received e-mails about  grandparents,
>parents and even current usage of 'mango' for green  pepper.>>
>
>Interesting.
>I've lived my entire life in south eastern and south central Pennsylvania, 
>as have both my parents and a number of my other relatives, and I have NEVER 
>heard stuffed green peppers referred to as anything other than 
>stuffed peppers 
>(and at least in my house they got stuffed with a mixture of browned ground
>beef  and cooked rice), nor green peppers as anything other than either green
>or bell  peppers.  Never ever heard them referred to as "mangos".
>The first time I ever saw or ate a mango (the real kind) was several years 
>after I graduated from college and had moved to Lancaster; one of my roommates
>used to buy them periodically.

I vaguely recall there being some confusion here on this list some 
years in the past, in which some recipe or other from Middle America 
(say, somewhere between the Rocky Mountains and Jersey City ;-)  ) 
referred to mangoes, and there was some evidence in that case to 
support the idea that green peppers were in fact the beast under 
reference. It was back in The Age of Ras...

Green Pepper Mangoes, AFAIK, are usually stuffed with raw vegetables 
(shredded cabbage, onion, carrot etc.) before pickling, and are very 
different from the stuffed peppers you mention.

What interests me is that the source for this info appears to suggest 
there's a word corruption or a specific usage issue (or both) at the 
heart of the mango-pepper equivocation, but fails to identify it. 
It's kind of like Nick Charles saying, "The killer is in this room; 
here's his motive and modus operandi. Oh, you want to know who it is, 
too? Some people want everything!" How could you fail, once having 
gone to the trouble of saying there's a logical explanation, to 
provide it to an audience of obviously interested readers or 
listeners? At least, without calling yourself some kind of tease, or 
discrediting yourself and your source?

Adamantius
-- 




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them 
eat cake!"
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", 1782

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