Summer is coming. For some that means grilling and ice cream. For me it means more opportunities to eat my favorite Mexican sauce: Chamoy.
You see, I always start to think about chamoy this time of year because we’re coming up on high season for food carts in New York. Youâve got the syrup-soaked shaved ice in the Lower East Side, the red-hot fried shrimp in deep Brooklyn, and the smoke-enrobed charcoal-grilled skewers in Chinatown. Me? Iâm all about the fruit stands you see in NYCâs Hispanic neighborhoods, the kind that are loaded down with sliced and bagged mangoes
That is chamoy
Chamoy sauce is a fermented sweet, salty, and spicy Mexican condiment thatâs about as thick as Sriracha, but far less pain-inducing. Thereâs a lot of different takes on it depending on manufacturer, but every single drop is simultaneously spicy, salty, sweet, and sour, making it the kind of sauce that gets all of your taste buds moving.
Just like sour, tangy Japanese umeboshi plums
Do like the fruit carts do, and drizzle chamoy sauce on fresh mango slices and add a squeeze of lime juice and a sprinkling of salt to kick that fruit snack into overdrive, much like you would with a sprinkle of chile powderal Pastora mango-lime smoothiechamoyada in Mexico. Pour a few tablespoons in the bottom of a large glass, give the glass a swirl to coat the sides. Pour in your mango smoothie and take in the beauty of a warm weather drink that’s sweet, tangy, salty, and savoryâall at once. Who knew your summer had so much potential.
