One of the neighbours has a couple of banana trees in their front yard; one of which has branches hanging over the wall. The end of the stalk has a weird man eating looking flower which drips (blood?) onto the sidewalk.
The bananas looked almost ripe the other day.
Alas, they’re too high off the ground to check them out.
Did you know that you can divide a banana into three equal wedges using no tools?
This is a Canary Island banana; a little shorter than the usual ones you see and I think it’s got more of a curve too. Also – they’re firmer (but not too firm) and have more flavour.
In Quito I learned to peel bananas from the opposite end. Instead of trying to break open the part that attaches at the top you can squeeze the outer tip and it will crack open to ease the peeling process.
And to split it into three… peel it, hold firmly with one hand, push finger into the banana longitudinally - the thing will split a 1/3 wedge of the banana off of one side. Just give it a good poke. The pull the remaining two wedges apart.
It’s very interesting that this works this way. Three equal parts – don't know why.
Sure, I was a bit sloppy and broke one of the pieces. Oops.
Last item: Bananas are reportedly useful to combat depression; developing serotonin in the body from the tryptophan that they contain (as does turkey I’ve heard). The down side is that the most tryptophan is in the peel. Ironically, eating a banana peel would make me more depressed, not less.
