Our feelings are too paradoxical when it comes to bananas. We believe that bananas are an important food; at the same time, we enjoy banana jokes. Someone falling on a banana peel and getting up is hilarious slapstick. We say that someone has gone crazy when it doesn’t make sense. Joke books and websites are full of banana jokes. For example:
Look bananas. They are inverted traffic lights. For bananas, green is “Be patient and wait.” Yellow is the right of way. Red is: “Watch out, this banana is an alien.”
Most banana jokes, however, are not G-rated.
The strange thing is that we also take bananas very seriously, even when we joke about them. Someone as formal as Mr. Greenspan warned bankers, on September 26, 2005, saying: “Don’t slip on the banana.” This was while mentioning Adam Smith and free markets.
In computer and website terminology, “banana problem” is the term for misspelled and inaccurate conditions or an uncertain situation related to the termination of a program.
During the last decade of the 20th century, bananas were taken so solemnly that trade wars broke out between Europe and the United States and the Banana Republics. The “Banana Republics” are the banana-producing countries in Central America.
Europeans called the banana “Indian Fig” during the 15th century and the first shipment of bananas to the United States during the colonial period was in the late 17th century. Not knowing what to do with a plantain, the colonists experimented by cooking it with all kinds of meat.
In Hawaii, a couple of centuries ago, bananas were prohibited for women. If a woman eats a banana, she could be sentenced to death.
There are banana islands off the west coast of Africa because, contrary to the belief that banana cultivation only belongs to the tropical and subtropical countries of the Americas, most of the world’s banana crops are grown in Africa.
Bananas come in many colors. “The Ice-Cream Banana” is blue, but turns yellow when ripe. Maroon or purple bananas are called “Red Bananas” and the flesh inside their skin is pink.
A banana plant is not a tree, although we call it that. It is a monstrous herb with huge, elongated, flat leaves and orange or purple flowers. Inside the trunk of a banana plant is a white tube that is edible when cooked.
We place bananas around us for entertainment, even in songs. Remember the calypso “Banana Boat Song” and the Woody Allen movie, “Bananas”?
At home, we buy so many bananas and so often that our grocer probably thinks we’re hiding pet monkeys. An almost daily statement in our kitchen is: “I don’t have breakfast (or lunch). I’m in a hurry. I’ll just have a banana.”
A banana finds its true sweet taste when it ripens and the skin turns brown. In addition to eating the banana as a fruit, we make desserts like banana split, banana pudding, and banana bread.
What we call banana bread is not bread, but rather a not too sweet cake, best served with afternoon tea. This is what I put inside my banana bread:
about two and a half cups flour (whole wheat and unbleached white mix)
a pinch of salt
baking powder
2 eggs or their equivalent from Egg-Beaters
about ¾ cup light brown sugar
less than half a cup of corn oil (butter would taste better if you’re not worried about cholesterol)
three or four mashed bananas, when the fruit is brown on the outside and soft on the inside
chopped nuts, coconuts or almonds added as a variety to taste
Enjoy your bananas. They play an important role in our lives.