Breakfast isn't breakfast without the happy yellow smile of a banana. I've been eating one every day for decades: it isn't just that I like them, they're very good nutritionally, particularly in providing our daily requirement of potassium. The average Brit eats a hundred a year: I reckon I manage 350 and have a grumpy start to the other fifteen days.
I've been fortunate to live in tropical countries in Africa and the Caribbean where bananas are grown and have therefore been able to appreciate the fruit's huge variety of size, colour, shape and taste - and there are some which are far more tasty than the Cavendish variety we see in our shops. We had banana trees in our garden, Mrs MW travelled back to England from Jamaica on a banana boat - interestingly, they didn't serve bananas for breakfast - and we've taken the banana further: as well as using it for cooking - the plantain variety most commonly used for this is disappointing - we've also made banana wine. Sadly, it was not a success.
A good friend of ours in Jamaica was doing research into Panama disease which was destroying the banana crop. The problem with the banana is that it has a limited gene pool so the disease - even worse now globally than in those days - is racing through the crop. This could be a catastrophe: breakfast without a banana?
Whilst travelling in Peru, a bunch of small bananas was hung up on a post for our group to enjoy. They were about the size of an average English sausage. I picked and peeled one walking past, gobbling it in a couple of mouthfulls. I was compelled to turn around and eat another, and another. I had no idea bananas could have a taste and texture so different to the ones in the UK. I wish that variety was available to us here; it was like a completely different fruit.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you again, Derryck. Yes, most people have no idea of the variety and superb quality of the many types of banana out there. I think you can buy some if you live in places like London where there are large immigrant communities from tropical countries.
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