Walking anywhere in my community, there are banana and plantain plants everywhere. One would think that I eat bananas all of the time – well, sort of.
Unripe green bananas can be peeled and boiled similar to a potato. They can also be fried into banana chips. People usually eat bananas green instead of waiting for them to ripen, because a green banana serves as a starchy belly-filling food while a ripe one only serves as a sweet.
Thus, in other homes I am served boiled bananas with salt or in a soup. Pretty good, but not something I would necessarily cook for myself. Occasionally a community member gives me a bunch of green bananas to take home and cook. So what do I do with it? I stow it away under my table for a few weeks until I have some beautiful, ripe yellow bananas. What then follows are 3 intense banana-eating days before the bananas will spoil.
The first time ever here in Panama that I have had bread and ripe bananas at the same time! (I always have peanut butter and honey on hand).
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