Banana Story

Hi friends

What gets me to write this banana story is when I notice this lone bunch of bananas left behind by the girls.

When they were here I provided them with bananas to snack on as it is a healthy food. It is also cheap, easily available and quite nice and comparable to other fruits in all the goodness. In times of the rising cost, banana is therefore a good choice. If we buy local banana so much the better, we are helping our own farmers. Better still grow your own bananas .

Banana has high potassium content. Good for the heart it seems. Since I am diagnosed with a suspect of some heart ailments it is just right that I too should eat  more bananas.

Banana gives instant energy. If you are hungry and tired eat a banana as a quick fix. You can also have it before or during exercise to boost your energy.  Tennis grand slam players too take bananas during breaks to refuel energy in long and grueling matches.

So you see banana is not only for the poor  as some may think.

But in the old days banana was considered to be the poor mans's food.

When milk was scarce or unaffordable infants were fed with  mashed bananas. To stop the child from crying feed him banana.  May be umpteen years ago I was one child being treated like that!

Now I take the cue from people of the old days what to do in a distressed situation. If I am late in preparing meals when time is up and everybody is hungry I sometimes would have a bunch of bananas hung in the kitchen as a standby he he.

Banana is very synonym with some of us so much so we develop a strong liking to planting bananas at our home even if our compound is so small. It is easy to plant but quite difficult to manage.

Tall banana in a small compound

Plant it where ever possible

If you have ever experienced growing banana  then you will know that after harvesting the fruits disposing the tree is quite a problem because it makes such a big garbage.  It is of no point keeping the plant because it will never bear fruit again. Anyway you got to tebang the whole tree to get to the bunch of fruits.

You also sometimes get heart sick seeing your bananas being robbed and destroyed by monkeys and you are left with spoilt fruits or nothing at all but only the garbage to clear.

Come to think of it why go through all the troubles. If you want to eat banana just go buy a kilo, you can have it more than you can stomach. But then you like it better and feel proud about it if its home grown. You can tell your friend, this banana is from the tree I planted.

I first planted banana some years ago after a trip back to the kampung. It was nice to see the many banana plants around the kampung house. It was green and fresh and I wanted the same effect at home. So? I have one tree dug out, took it home and planted it.

Banana is so easy to grow. I started with just one plant and now I have a clump. but to tell you the truth my starter plant was as tall as me he he.

The plant

Pisang empat puluh hari -the fruit

I also grow pisang awak which by the way can be translated directly as, your banana. For me the not so ripe pisang awak make tastier banana fritters than pisang nangka.  This is the reason I plant the pisang awak though some people might think no one wants this kind of banana. Some even have seeds the more reason people don't want them.

Pisang awak-unwanted?

Don't discard the over ripe bananas for visiting birds yet ( have mercy leave them some) because it can still be consumed by humans. Make cekodok, a kampung food which has found its way to the cities. But don't eat it too much it's fattening!

If you want to make banana cake choose the right type of banana as indicated in the recipe. Pisang berangan ( dream banana?) is usually the choice because it makes tasty banana cakes. But I use whatever banana I have at hand. It might not taste like a dream cake but still is quite nice and no one would notice the difference except may be the most expert.

Have you ever heard of pisang awak masam? Yes that's the name, pisang awak masam which means your sour banana. No poking fun but that's what the kampung people call it. They planted it mainly for chicken and not for human consumption but why should I bother even if its just for animal feed. I have used it before in cakes and it tasted nice and not too sweet because the special taste of the banana.

 Alas the pisang awak masam has already extinct from my home garden.

In fact there are some types of bananas that have become scarce like those that come with the name of  awak nipah, awak gelugor or  awak abu. I would like to plant them too.

Too much bananas? Then share it with your neighbors. If they are not interested here is what you can do . . .

• Peel the not fully ripe banana
• Slice it
• Throw away parts with seeds
• Put those slices without seed in the food processor
• Process it coarse
• Pack in plastic wrap
• Freeze
• thaw when needed

Packed  for freezing

So there you can have banana for cooking at any time.

Sorry friends I got carried away talking about bananas anyway I hope you enjoy reading and find my tips useful.

Till next entry . . . bye . . .