Banana Yellow Fruit

More Than Just Yellow Fruit

When I first heard about the assignment to read the book, Banana-The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World, I was not thrilled. In my opinion, bananas have always just been a yellow fruit on the counter top in a fruit bowl. What more could there be to this fruit? I am not too fond of bananas myself. I was afraid that I would not find the book that interesting, but after reading the first couple of chapters my impression of bananas completely changed! It turns out that there is more to a banana than it just being a cereal topping or a workout energizer. The author of the book, Dan Koeppel, paid a lot of attention to detail and careful explanations while writing the book. It covers everything including where the

To my surprise, some of them were even different in color. As you can see, this banana (left) is called the Rathambala Banana. It is from Sri Lanka, which means it’s a long way from its origin. The color of its skin was dark-brownish red, others were more brown than red. After I did a bit of research, I discovered that although this banana came from Sri Lanka, it originated in the West Indies and areas of central Asia. Relating to the book, this must mean that in the past, slaves or explorers traveled with the corms of this fruit (or a similar one) and managed to start plantations in Sri Lanka. I’m sure this banana is also grown in other warm and humid parts of the world. Koeppel makes is clear that bananas have specific conditions that are necessary for harvests and for the tree to actually carry a hand/bunch of

I think it’s because South Africa has a lot of it’s own domestic fruits. These bananas seen in the image are the common Cavendish bananas. The abundance of them on the shelves symbolizes the usage of bananas in South African cuisine. Apart from its super nutritional value, the banana features in some traditional South African recipes, one of which is my mother’s killer Spicy Mayo Banana Salad and my uncle’s Nutty Banana Bread! Although I am not too fond of bananas, I love these dishes and I’m glad that now I know a bit more about ‘their