I have this belief that there would be more mangoes eaten if they were just easier to eat. Flavor, texture and nutritionally-speaking, mangoes are far superior than, say, apples. At least in my opinion. But man are they hard to eat.

Here are the two best ways to slice a mango. One involves simple knife skills, and the other involves a gadget.

• The Knife Skills Solution: With the skin still on, slice the wider, flat sides off the mango as close to the pit as possible, then cut the flesh into squares, just short of the skin, so be careful not to pierce through. Using a table or butter knife (to be safe) and cradling the fruit in your hands so you can feel where the knife is, slice a grid pattern into the flesh. Then turn the piece inside out and a nice, neat, network of mango cubes will be poking out into the world awaiting your attention. At this point you can either slice them off, or eat them off the skin. As for the thin ribs of flesh still on the pit, slice them off and cut them in a similar way, although you may not need to do a grid, more like a row of short hash marks (between four and six).

• The Gadget Solution: With one swift push of the Oxo Mango Splitter, the guessing-game out of seeding and slicing a mango is history. No more sticky fingers; no more wasted sweet meat. At that point you can slice the skin away, or use the method outlined above to harvest the flesh.