My Family Used To Call A Bell Pepper A Mango

When I was little my family would always call bell peppers mangoes , how about you?! When I moved from the Midwest to California, I was shocked when I found out what a mango really was when I began working for a local grocery chain. Boy, we were SO FAR OFF THAT IT'S STILL EMBARRASSING!🫑🥭 However, it is still common enough that the Webster dictionary's definition for mango includes a sweet pepper.  

Some grocery stores will call their bell peppers “ mango peppers ” so that everybody knows exactly what type of food they are looking at. I do wonder how that would work for anybody wanting to prepare a Mango and Bell Pepper Salsa. Although both the bell pepper and the mango are fruits, a pepper is a pepper and a mango is a mango. Imagine ordering a delicious tropical mango fruit drink and receiving a bell pepper drink.🤣

Tropical Mango Fruit Drinks Made In Hawaii

Why is bell pepper call mango in the first place? Well, in the Midwest and some Appalachia states (especially Southern Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and West Virginia), the older generations historically called bell peppers " mangoes ". This was because mangoes imported to America in the 1700s and 1800s had to be pickled to survive long ship journeys without any refrigeration. When real mangoes ran short, then immigrants would stuff and pickle other veggies like bell peppers, with similar pickling solutions or marinades used on the mangoes. The English and Germans would usually e the ones who did this. After a long while , mangoes became an actual VERB with the definition: "to pickle" so calling pickled bell pepper mangoes instead of peppers became popular in the Midwest, and some still call bell peppers mangoes today!.