I Didn’t Need Google For That

I learned something about mangoes yesterday. It isn’t anything overly profound, but it was useful to learn. Although, when I say that I learned something, I feel like I’m stretching the boundaries of the word; giving Google too much credit. What I think I mean is that my instincts were confirmed by a Google search.

What am I talking about exactly?

Well, yesterday, I confirmed that a mango that has turned brown tastes bad.

You may say, “well, Adam, duh” and I will not judge you for this reaction.

However, in the moment, I had committed to peeling and slicing two mangoes, so I desperately wanted them to not be bad. So, despite noticing immediately that both mangoes were a rather unpleasant colour of brown, I kept peeling them, meticulously. Then, once peeled, I nibbled, hesitantly, on the edges, just to see if they tasted as bad as they looked. They did. Then, just to be sure I googled “are brown mangoes bad to eat.” Of course I did, because why would I trust my own analysis of whether they are bad? Google told me some version of “yes they’re bad, don’t eat” and “they’re probably fine, eat.” So, I tasted more bad mango and decided that I didn’t like the taste and that it would ruin the Muttachar that I was hoping to make.

I admitted defeat, accepted the guilt and privilege of food waste, dropped the sliced and filleted mango into the compost bucket, and decided that we would have a salad instead.

Here’s the thing. I don’t think that it was bad mango, so much as I used Google to confirm something that I already knew: I don’t enjoy the taste of overripe mango.

I didn’t need Google for that.