The Aams Dealer

06/07/2022

I have Sindri boxes available for pick up.

06/07/2022

I have a few boxes of Sindri mangoes from a shipment that came in today if anyone is interested. Please message me.

05/30/2022

Hi Friends,

Many of you have reached out with the question on everyone’s mind this time of year - when are the Pakistani mango shipments starting? I know I have been delayed in getting back to you guys as I have been going through my own annual dilemma, trying to decide whether to put my family through another mango season.

The life of the Aams Dealer isn’t just the glitz and glamor you read about in Eater articles. It is hard to maintain a normal family life when you must be on call to leave at odd hours of the night to go to airport cargo terminals to retrieve shipments; there is a constant worry about shipping delays, and the very real stress of having a bad batch that will surely earn you a lashing on Jersey Halal Spots.

I thought about hanging up the gloves this year. I’ve had a good run. The game is very different from when I started many years ago. Lots of newcomers are selling on WhatsApp now. Much like ma*****na in Times Square, Pakistani mangoes are becoming more and more available and so perhaps, this was the right time for me to ride into the sunset to make room for the next generation of fruit peddlers.

As I contemplated what the fate of my mango empire would be, I did Salat-al-Istikhara - a prayer recited by Muslims who are seeking guidance from God. I often turn to this prayer whenever I have big life decisions to make – what could be bigger than this one?

Those who perform the Istikhara will sometimes have a dream or see a sign guiding them towards the appropriate decision. Even if you don’t see a clear sign, you will often have some inclination in your heart about a decision.

The morning after I did Istikhara, I decided to eat a Mexican mango that we had bought from our local supermarket. Immediately after finishing the mango, I was overcome by the discomfort of the stringy insoluble fibers from the mango stuck in-between my teeth. I immediately ran to the bathroom and started brushing vigorously (in my own sink) in a futile attempt to get the stringy mango fibers out from between my teeth. No matter how hard I brushed, I couldn’t get the fibers out. I had no choice but to reach for the floss. I typically only floss twice a year - immediately before my dentist appointments - because I somehow still believe I can trick the hygienist into thinking I floss regularly. But here I was, months away from my semi-annual check-up – forced to stop blood circulation in my fingers by tightly wrapping waxed nylon around my fingertips because I just had to get the fibers from the mango out of my teeth. This had to be my sign – the Ishtikhara prayer never fails me.

How could I let all of you down like that? What would you, my loyal mango lovers who have been on the Aams Dealer journey from the very beginning do?

Was I going to leave you to go to Costco to buy stringy Mexican mangoes and dental floss? Or even worse, would you be forced to go to one of these new fly-by-night Pakistani mango dealers and risk eating mango laced with fentanyl from the back of a van in a parking lot?

Why? Just so I could have my weekends free to spend time with the family and golf? No, I could not be so selfish.


Friends, I am happy to announce that the adventures of the Aams Dealer have been renewed for another season.

Order your Sindri or Anwar Ratol for pick up in Teaneck on June 5.

www.theaamsdealer.com

Yours in Confidence,

The Aams Dealer

Your Source for Pakistani Mangoes

08/17/2021

Happy to be a part of this great piece …

Customs restrictions, high transport costs, and a short shelf life have made the world’s greatest mangoes — grown in Pakistan — difficult to come by in the U.S.

06/23/2021

At precisely 1600 hours I arrived at the cargo pick up location with airway bill #22245562 and a government issued ID in hand. I dutifully handed my information to the burley tattooed man behind the counter. He typed my information into his computer and then looked me up and down suspiciously. I refused to show any sign of intimidation even though my knees felt weak. I mustered up the courage to keep looking him straight in the eye. He was waiting for me to flinch, to look away, he had clearly been well trained to look for any signs of fear or weakness. I held my ground refusing to give in. After what couldn't have been more than a few seconds - although it felt much longer - he finally said in a stern voice "go out to the loading dock". I obliged and got out of there as quick as I could.

I waited in front of the loading dock for a good 15 minutes in the sweltering heat. “Was anyone even going to come?" I thought to myself. I put my ear to the black steel door of the loading dock to try to hear if there was anything even going on the other side. Silence.

"Was I even in the right spot?" "What if I had been duped?" Panicked thoughts rushed through my mind. I turned around and hopped off the loading dock and slowly started making my way back toward my 2011 Odyssey. I felt defeated. "Why do I put myself in these situations?" I thought to myself. I could imagine my dad scolding me - "Can't you just focus on using your law degree?" - he would surely say to me when he found out about this failed mission. Maybe he was right. Then, suddenly, without notice, I heard the rattling sound of the black steel door of the loading dock sliding open. The sound caught me off guard, startled, I turned around. I quickly walked back towards the dock. "Hello" I called out, "Anyone There?" Silence. I walked closer, strange, there was no sign of anyone in sight. I climbed up the loading dock and made my way into the warehouse . An eerie silence filled the air, "why was warehouse so damn quiet?" "Who had opened the door?" My mind raced with unanswered questions.

Then suddenly I saw it, a lonely pallet with neatly packed boxes of the treasure I had set out to find sitting there by itself. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, "two rakat extra nafl tonight" I promised myself....

Just another day in the life of an aams dealer.

*******************************************

Visit www.theaamsdealer.com to place your order.

06/13/2021

In 1916, a 14 year old schoolboy named Antonik Gentilem submitted a drawing of a anthropomorphic peanut into a design contest. The drawing eventually came to be known as “Mr. Peanut”, the peanut with the top hat and cane that has come to symbolize the entire peanut industry and has appeared on every Planters package and advertisement. Who would have thought that this 14 year old’s drawing would become one of the most well-known logos in advertising history?

About 12 years later, in 1928, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks drew a funny animal cartoon character which first debuted in the short film Steamboat Willie. The mouse known as "Mickey" is now one of the most recognizable images in the world and is the mascot of the Walt Disney Company.

Now 90 years after Mickey and over 100 years after - a new icon is born. A young attorney named Saira Hussain has sketched what is sure eclipse both Mickey Mouse and Mr. Peanut in terms of international recognition (or at least recognition among Pakistani’s in North Jersey). Ladies and Gentleman, I introduce to you Anwar, The Aams Dealer. What Mr. Peanut did for nuts and Mickey Mouse did for entertainment, I have no doubt that Anwar will do for the Pakistani Mango trade.

06/08/2021

This isn’t the life I imagined for myself, operating on the fringes of society in the shadowy underworld of the Pakistani Mango trade, pedaling fancy fruits to addicts anxiously awaiting the next shipment.

As they say in my tradition, we plan and God plans, but God is the best of planners. So here I am, helping mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, ordinary working class people get their next fix of what is quite possibly the most perfect food – the Pakistani mango (or as its called in Urdu, Aam)

If I told you the stuff I’ve seen in business you wouldn’t even believe me – spouses hiding mangoes from each other, parents waiting until their kids go to bed to bring out the box of Pakistani mangoes from hiding to indulge, families reaching into their emergency savings just to order that next box because they just long for the memory of back home. I’ve seen marriages almost ruined over arguments about who gets to gnaw on the coveted “ghutli” (the mango seed). Yes, my friends, I have seen it all.

Those who have tried a Pakistani mango understand, once you experience that first bite and your mouth bursts with flavors you’ve never experienced before, you are hooked and from then on you’re just left asking: “when is the next shipment coming?”

I am sure you’re wondering, how did an ordinary mild mannered guy like me get mixed up in the Pakistani mango trade. To be honest it all started rather innocently. You may not know this but up until a few years ago, Pakistani mangoes were not available in the USA at all. That’s right, because of US trade restrictions the Pakistani mango was not allowed within US borders.

But here’s the catch, these mangoes were available in Canada. Yes, in addition to Wayne Gretzky and free healthcare, our lucky neighbors to the north could indulge in the king of fruit by taking a quick trip to the local Iqbal Foods. So every summer, weekend warriors like me would drive the close to 500 miles from New Jersey to Toronto for the sole purpose of eating Pakistani mangoes while they were in season.

We had to eat as much as possible while there because there was no way to bring the mangoes back into the USA. Oh and believe me many tried, however usually without much success. Good luck trying to tell a US customs officer “no” when he asks if you are bringing fruit back into the USA when the aroma of mangoes immediately fills the air as you open the window of your Toyota Camry.

Like the end to Prohibition in 1933, back in 2011, the US started to lax the restrictions on the importing of Pakistani Mangoes into the United States provided the mangoes went through an irradiation process. The problem was the mangoes were just too expensive.

When Pakistani mangoes first made their US debut in 2011 they were selling for $80 per box. It was not that Pakistani mango farmers were charging hefty sums or that retailers were making huge margins, the truth is that the prices were high because of the cost of logistics. The mangoes were flown into USA and then transported to an irradiation facility in Iowa from there they were distributed to suppliers who then sold them to Pakistani grocery stores.

Then about four years ago everything changed. I met a “guy” through a “guy”, who was a logistics genius. It had been rumored that this man had worked out the logistics of getting Pakistani mangoes to the USA and irradiated to the point that the cost per box went down significantly. I was skeptical at first, but with nothing to lose I contacted this mystery man and ordered a few boxes. I was given a time and date to go the cargo pick up at Newark International Airport. I certainly had my doubts about this shady set-up, but as they say, no risk, no reward. So one June evening I drove to the airport with an airway bill. I had to wait around for hours, but in the end, I got mangoes.

I ended up telling some friends about my success. My friends told their friends and before long, everyone wanted to order Pakistani mangoes. I was basically a middle man consolidating orders for friends to bring the cost down. Soon I was ordering and picking up hundreds of boxes from the airport as more and more people got word of these mangoes…and alas, my friends… the Aams Dealer was born.

Yours in confidence,

The Aams Dealer