The mango season in Thailand peaks from April to June, and although you can get mango all year round, it is during this time of the year that they taste the very best. I love everything with mango, but the combination with mango and sticky rice is second to none. Especially if there is a lot of thick white sweet sauce that you can pour over.
There are several varieties of Thai mangoes, each with unique characteristics and flavors. Among the most famous is the Nam Dok Mai, which has golden yellow skin and an elongated and slender shape, which tapers to a point. Nam Dok Mai is known for its sweet, aromatic flavor with floral undertones. This is the type of mango you usually get with mango sticky rice.
I’ve sometimes seen Thai mangoes in the supermarkets at home, but they’re always ridiculously expensive, so I usually try to postpone my mango cravings to when I’m in Thailand.
It was Pinny, a friend from Thailand, who recommended me Mae Varee, and according to her, this is where you get the very best mangoes in Bangkok. I have no reason to doubt that, because the mango I had was just perfect. It had that incredibly sweet, slightly floral taste that characterizes mangoes which have been allowed to ripen in the sun, and I savored every bit of it.
Since Mae Varee is a shop and not a restaurant, you get your mango sticky rice set to go. There aren’t so many obvious places to sit down nearby, but I found a spot under the SkyTrain stairs, where I could eat my mango sticky rice undisturbed. I paid around THB120 for the mango set, which came with 3 different kinds of sticky rice, sauce and roasted mung beans.
Mae Varee is located right at the beginning of Thonglor Road (Sukhumvit Soi 55), and I’ve actually walked past the little shop many times. Though I’ve always been on my way to a restaurant or heading back from a restaurant and therefore too full to even consider stopping for a mango. This has definitely changed now. No way I’ll be able to walk by Mae Varee in the future, without buying a mango.
Mae Varee, Sukhumvit Soi 55 (Thonglor Road), Thonglor, Bangkok
