FROM mid-April to mid-June one can typically purchase Haitian mangoes from the produce vendor on 49th Avenue by Vernon Boulevard. This is when the fruit from this region is in season and available. For those in the know, which includes the Hunters Point West Indian Nanny Posse and The Editor, there is no better delicacy in the world.
While many in India claim their Alphonso is the ‘King’ of mangoes, and those from The Philippines give similar accolades to their Champagne mangoes, the people of the Caribbean quietly buy, consume, and enjoy their crop with the plaudits shared among themselves, and The Editor.
This year there are no Haitian mangoes on 49th Avenue. Nor in Queens, Manhattan, or any other street in the USA. When I first noticed the lack of large, green, kidney-shaped fruits, I had an inkling as to why, but was also hoping that maybe the harvest was just late. A month later, a quick google search confirmed my fears.
The USDA halted the export of mangoes from Haiti in January due to the inability to safely inspect them within the country, a necessity to prevent fly larvae from landing stateside. The complete breakdown and unending violence in Haiti finally took down what was probability one of the few industries left in the country. At $12 million in total sales it was a pittance to the U.S., but a fortune that subsisted supported hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti. While we read daily of the horrors in Ukraine, there are others much closer to home that receive no mention. Unless you walk by the fruit stand on 49th Avenue in Long Island City and notice that something is missing.
//MORE SADNESS in LIC, but maybe a good way to help that benefits you as well: Last Saturday, a man was shot in a local restaurant. It was in an area of town whose residents and appearance are not typically associated with the booming metropolis we’ve become, but still lies within the borders of LIC as deemed by the authorities (and is frequently mistakenly called another part of Queens by out-of-town journos). The roughly one-block ‘neighborhood,’ is a cluster of Bangladeshi businesses, including Boishakhi, the restaurant where the incident occurred.
You can both read and view what went down, but basically a gunman entered the crowded restaurant, fired a few shots, mayhem occurred, and then he went after what looks to be his intended target and shot him in the buttocks. The victim, an employee of the restaurant, survived, but a gunshot wound is a gunshot wound, and for those in attendance gun violence is a horrifying experience. And all too frequent – full stop.
If there’s a silver-lining, it’s to make us aware that this restaurant and neighborhood exists. And is so close by. And, as it turns out, the restaurant was written up favorably in The New York Times about six years ago. The pictures of the food look delicious.
So take a little adventure and check out a new world and cuisine. All without leaving the confines of LIC, a place where many different cultures collide. Boishakhi is named after the first month of the Bengali calendar, which lies between the middle of April and the first half of May. According to Wikipedia, it is also “the month when many of the seasonal fruits, especially mango, watermelon, and jackfruit become available. Green unripe mangoes are a particular delicacy of the month.”
U.S. Halts Mango Exports From Haiti
Gunman Shoots Employee Inside of LIC Restaurant
A Steam Table Laden With Bangladeshi Cuisine – thank you Ligaya
[…] brought to you by the owner of Boishakhi and is right down the street from that restaurant, in an enclave of LIC that we wrote up in June. We also excitedly highlighted Boishakhi itself, but instead of our morsels on their new […]