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'Sugar Boom Boom' lives on in Mango Tree By Rohandra John, Trinidad Express, February 12, 2005 |
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Remembering Kitch AFTER EATING what he thought to be the most delicious mango on earth, while on a tour in the US Virgin Islands some 20 years ago, legendary calypsonian Lord Kitchener returned to Trinidad with the mango tree and planted it in his backyard. Today the tree produces larger-than-normal mangoes, leaving many in awe of their size. Kitchener's wife, Valarie Green, says her family, who had been feasting on the mangoes, produced in abundance at their home, Rainorama Palace, Diego Martin, over the years, did not "have a clue what type of mango it is or what's the name of it". "Kitchener just brought back the little mango tree after he tasted the mango over there in the US Virgin Islands and planted it in our backyard and this is what it produces," she said. And because it was so "incredibly sweet and just so tasty," the family, she said, has dubbed it 'Sugar boom-boom', after Kitchener's monster calypso hit of the same name. "It not just big but it real sweet and tasty. When you see it ripe, it real delicious. So we christened it 'Sugar boom-boom'," she said. In her hand she held what she said was the most humongous of the lot which the tree has produced to date. She said she felt compelled to bring the fruit to the Express "just because it is so huge and we wanted some pictures taken of it before we cut it up and make chow. "It just goes to show that Kitchener had a good hand to plant things." She said because the mangoes were so big, it was "normally too much for one person to eat, so you find two to three persons have to share one". Valarie said the unusual tree produced mangoes "out of the regular mango season. We get mangoes around Carnival time and you know Kitchener was a Carnival person." Valarie said the family had also taken to giving away some of the mangoes to neighbours and passers-by who are attracted by its size and who, out of curiousity, want to have a taste. |