Mango Salsa

I recently joined the 3rd Annual Homemade Salsa Contest at my local public library. It was my first time to join this year and I was so excited about it.  I knew about the contest last year but was too late to register and was only able to volunteer as one of the 'tasters'. I contemplated on what salsa to enter the contest. Sophie, who eats chips and salsa everyday (she loves Mexican food) decided that I should enter my mango salsa. She thought it tasted so good and will earn me a spot as one of the three winners. Unfortunately, I didn't win. The three winners were salsa that were all spicy.  The grand winner was a salsa that tasted like puréed jalapeños ( it was so spicy I had watery eyes and had to drink 2 glasses of water). I guess next year i will just enter a blended 'siling labuyo'. That will probably earn me a spot. (Bitter much??Lol ) Sophie was so disappointed. She couldn't believe I lost. She wanted a rematch(hahaha). I guess Latinos are not ready for my mango salsa with alamang as my secret ingredient. Oh well.

But for us Filipinos, mango salsa is so popular. We don't eat it with chips but instead pair it with fried fish like tilapia. I remember eating it most of the time when I was in the province of Laguna, where tilapia is eaten often ( lots of tilapia fish ponds). I especially like using mango that is green. But since we don't have the green mango here, I would opt for a ripe but still crunchy mango.

Below is the recipe for my underrated mango salsa.

Ingredients

1        pc        large mango (ripe but still hard, chopped)
1        pc        small onion, finely chopped
1        pc        medium tomato, chopped
1        pc        lime or lemon
1/2     cup     cilantro, roughly chopped
2        tbsp     shrimp paste (bagoong alamang)
1         tsp       ground pepper

Procedure

Mix all the ingredients except lime.  Squeeze the lime on the salsa. Mix well. Pair with Tostitos chips or with your favorite fried fish and rice..