Mango verde

Salt and funk against raw acid; pounded together the two stop being separate things.

Sour needs heat or the salad is one dimension repeated. Pound them in first.

Concentrated marine glutamate is what gives shredded raw fruit any savoury weight.

Unrefined caramel takes the sharpness off without turning the plate into a dessert.

Roasted fat coats the mouth so the acid arrives blunted; also the only crunch that lasts.

Different acid, same direction. It brightens where the mango is flat and aggressive.

Straight on the cut face. It suppresses the bitterness and lets the sourness read clean.

Fermented funk sits under sour fruit the way anchovy sits under tomato.

Earthy bitterness gives raw acid a floor; every South Indian mango pickle starts here.

Hard sour fruit, salt, chilli. The rojak equation in three parts.

Soapy-citrus leaf against green acid. Coriander is the substitute, not the original.

Sweet picked meat needs sour crunch, and the acid firms the flesh rather than cooking it.

Unripe fruit does lime’s job with fibre and body attached.

Brine and raw sourness. It works the way unripe tomato and salty cheese work.