That's interesting to hear that about avocados! I wonder why that is. Picking too early maybe? I've bought fruits and vegetables like that in the past as well. They stay "unripe" for ages and ages and almost overnight, they go bad.

As for preferring unripe mango and papaya, is that so they hold up better during the cooking process? If they are ingreients in a hot dish, they would probably turn to mush before the rest of the ingredients cook unless they are hard/unripe.

Interestingly, Mexicans have a similar tradition of the chili salt and also lime on mangos. I'm not sure if the mixture contains sugar, though.

I preferred pineapple, which added a sour component to the sweet/salty/spicy dipping mixture.

Me too! I love adding pineapple for a sweet and sour component to savory recipes.