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Bananas
By Marjorie Dorfman, Fri Dec 9th
Bananas: All That Potassium And Carmen Miranda Too! "…We have old-fashioned tomahto, Long Island potahto, but Yes,we have no bananas. We have no bananas today.."- Folk song byFrank Silver and Irving Cohen (1923) Whether you are off to Rio following the colorful trail ofCarmen Miranda’s fruit-filled hat or seated on your couchcontemplating the universe, the banana can always come along forthe ride. There are so many aspects to this strange andwonderful fruit. Even its shape is a bit mysterious; conjuringimages of tropical islands and sun-filled days. Did you knowthat the word "banana" originates from the Arabic and meansfinger? Doesn’t that make you wonder where the rest of the handis? I have been hooked on bananas ever since I was
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a child, andMiss Chiquita, drawn by Dik Brown who also created the Campbellkids, used to sing to me through the television in my parents’living room. (I always wondered why she never had her own show.She was so much cuter than Ed Sullivan.) You remember her words: (Article continued below)
I’m Chiquita Banana and I’m here to say Bananas need to ripen in a special way When they are flecked with brown and have a golden hue Bananas taste the best and are the best for you.
The banana is so popular in America today that four million tonsof them are imported every year. Not to compare apples tooranges, but rather apples to bananas, a banana has less water,fifty percent more food energy, four times the protein, half thefat, twice the carbohydrate, almost three times the phosphorus,five times the Vitamin C and iron and at least twice the othervitamins and minerals as a single apple! The average Americaneats 33 pounds of bananas a year. An excellent source ofpotassium and carbohydrates, they can be eaten any time of theday because of their digestive properties. Natural sugarprovides energy for those sports requiring endurance and lowproportions of sodium chloridium render a good recommendationfor salt free diets.
That’s all quite impressive, I know, but where did the bananacome from in the first place? Did it arrive as a conundrum alongwith the chicken or the egg, or did both of them precede it?Buddhist texts from 600bc mention the banana for the first timein history. Alexander The Great tasted bananas in the IndusValley in 327bc and in his day they were called pala.China records the presence of banana plantations as far back as200ad (way before the birth of Scarlet O’Hara). In 650 adIslamic conquerors brought bananas back to Palestine and throughtrade spread them all over Africa. They were unknown to the NewWorld until 1516 when the first root stocks were brought here bySpanish missionary, Father Tomas de Berlanger.
So much for traveling. How do they grow? The whole matter isextremely confusing. The banana tree itself (even though it isnot a tree but a giant plant) is by definition an herb. What isan herb? Without passing go or collecting $200, the answer is aflowering plant with a fleshy, rather than woody, stem. Eachstem consists of ten to fourteen hands, each carrying fromeighteen to twenty bananas. The stem, however is a false one,formed by tightly wrapped overlapping leaves, resembling stalksof celery. The plant belongs to the same family as lilies,orchids and palms and the fruit is a berry. By definition, aberry is a simple fruit having a skin surrounding one or moreseeds in a fleshy pulp. A banana cut lengthwise will reveal verytiny black seeds within its center. Therefore, a banana is afruit, herb, berry and plant all at the same time. Theexpression "going bananas" probably came into vogue during thetime all of these terms were being defined, don’t you think?
There are about four hundred different varieties of thisfabulous fruit, but don’t tell Carmen Miranda. (Apart from thefact that she is dead and you couldn’t possibly, there is no waythe woman could fit one more piece of anything on top of one ofher hats!) The three chief imported brands are Chiquita, Bonitaand Fyffes. The Chiquita (according to her whom I trustimplicitly) is always a guarantee of quality. Its productionsites are located in Honduras, Panama, and Columbia.The Bonita banana hails from Ecuador and is the cheapest of thethree, but only because it is never advertised. Fyffe’s foundedin 1888, has the distinction of being the oldest fruit brand inthe world. These bananas are produced in Belize, Columbia,Honduras, Suriname, Jamaica and The Windward Islands.
Harvesting is a race against time that starts while the bananais still green. From harvest to delivery at the supermarkettwenty days remain before spoilage occurs. Transportation isdone with specialized refrigerated cargo ships, each containingsome 250,000 boxes of bananas collected the day before. Thebananas are stocked in "ripening rooms" for six to eight days ata temperature that can not exceed 14.5C. This temperature allowsa homogenous ripening of the bananas of different sizes. The color of a banana’s skin indicates its degree of ripeness,but here is a more precise guide. Green bananas are not ripe,but can be safely used in soups and stews. Yellow with greentips indicates the fruit is partially ripe and it can bebroiled, baked or fried. All yellow bananas are ripe and arebest eaten raw or baked into cakes or pies. Yellow bananas withbrown freckles are fully ripe and can be eaten raw, in a salador in any other dishes calling for uncooked fruit. All brownbananas are over ripe, but if the flesh is firm they are stillin prime eating condition. Blackened areas indicate bruisedfruit and should be avoided.
Bananas can be utilized in hundreds of dishes prepared in asmany ways. Roasted, fried, broiled, par boiled, baked, sautéedor eaten raw, the results are always delicious. They wear manyhats, so to speak, and can serve as relishes, stuffing forgoose, duck, turkey or chicken, sauces, spreads, jellies, jams,candies, cake and pie filling, flour for breads and fresh fruitin salads. There is little that one cannot do with a banana (except maybe pay a utility bill.) I am sure that Carmen Mirandaloved bananas in every way, but dying as she did at such anearly age, I wonder if she didn’t put more of them on her hatsthan she ever ate. Chiquita could have told her the truth, butwould she have listened? Somehow I tend to doubt that those twowould have ever gotten along! About the author:Bio Marjorie Dorman is a freelance writer originally fromBrooklyn, New York. She now lives in Doylestown, PA with fourcats. She is the author of an ebook called A Taste of Funny andher website, Eat, Drink And Really Be Merry(http://www.ingestandimbibe) features many well researched andhumorous articles on the subject of food and drink. | Sign In |
