Coachella desert's Valencia Pride

imported from Mexico Customers have been wondering for weeks when they'd show up, and now Wong Farms' desert mangoes, among the most exotic and eagerly sought fruits grown in California, are back at the Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market. Juicy, sweet and aromatic, they're expensive and tricky to obtain, but worth it for diehard mango lovers.

Store-bought mangoes, imported from Mexico, the Caribbean and South America, are a crapshoot. Sometimes they're great, but they're usually not identified by variety, and the most common kind, the red-skinned, highly productive Tommy Atkins, is fibrous in texture and mediocre in flavor.

Most imported mangoes have to undergo hot-water treatment to kill insect pests, which destroys the aroma, and if the fruit is harvested before it is mature or the process is not done correctly, the what fruit can shrivel or develop off-flavors.