Bananas Sans Pajamas
Disclaimer: The title of this post is a complete rip-off of an old sketch by Tony Martin and Mick Molloy. I've never actually sat around thinking of disrobed bananas.
Last week a few of us were having dinner and the topic of bananas came up. I think the topic of fruit in general popped up because of the chocolate fondue sitting in front of us, surrounded by a variety of "seasonal" fruits. There were strawberries, grapes, pineapple (which paired with chocolate fondue revealed itself to be a great combination) and kiwifruit ... the banana was a notable absence. It wasn't long before we started discussing the nearly inverse relationship between banana quality and price per kilo, in the wake of the Queensland cyclone.
In my opinion, the banana is a much maligned fruit. Its use in gags always seems to conjure up negative connotations. For instance, using it to block some annoying person's exhaust pipe (despite being childish, I guess this is pretty effective), or strategically placing it on the ground so that some poor sucker will slip on it. And as for all those Big Fruits lolling about this big brown land ... I sometimes wonder if the idea of them really is complementary or put crudely, "taking the piss".
Yet despite the banana's ungainly physical dimensions and goofy name, it's definitely my fruit of choice. Hence, post-cyclone, it's been quite a while since I've had my fix. The last time I went without fruit in general for so long, was while in America last year. For a country where you can buy artery-calcifying meals of gargantuan proportions and coffee that you can strip walls with, relative lack of fresh fruit (and even more alarmingly, ripe fruit at room temperature!) really alarmed me. On the other hand, when I found myself in Vietnam, the variety of fruit was unfathomable. I ate so much I thought I'd wake up one morning like Gregor Samsa, instead finding myself having taken on the form of a plump custard apple. One thing I noticed over there was that when you've got such an abundance of good natural stuff to eat, you've got no reason to go scoffing all that processed stuff anyway.
I guess we're pretty lucky living here in that we get the best of both worlds. We can take a stroll through Vic Market to pick up good, fresh produce (not to mention those spanish doughnuts!). Then again, if we're in search for comfort food or something to mop up the one too many drinks we might have imbibed the previous evening, there's no shortage of places where we can go for that too (er, maybe those spanish doughnuts again).
Nevertheless, I'm still missing my bananas.
Last week a few of us were having dinner and the topic of bananas came up. I think the topic of fruit in general popped up because of the chocolate fondue sitting in front of us, surrounded by a variety of "seasonal" fruits. There were strawberries, grapes, pineapple (which paired with chocolate fondue revealed itself to be a great combination) and kiwifruit ... the banana was a notable absence. It wasn't long before we started discussing the nearly inverse relationship between banana quality and price per kilo, in the wake of the Queensland cyclone.
In my opinion, the banana is a much maligned fruit. Its use in gags always seems to conjure up negative connotations. For instance, using it to block some annoying person's exhaust pipe (despite being childish, I guess this is pretty effective), or strategically placing it on the ground so that some poor sucker will slip on it. And as for all those Big Fruits lolling about this big brown land ... I sometimes wonder if the idea of them really is complementary or put crudely, "taking the piss".
Yet despite the banana's ungainly physical dimensions and goofy name, it's definitely my fruit of choice. Hence, post-cyclone, it's been quite a while since I've had my fix. The last time I went without fruit in general for so long, was while in America last year. For a country where you can buy artery-calcifying meals of gargantuan proportions and coffee that you can strip walls with, relative lack of fresh fruit (and even more alarmingly, ripe fruit at room temperature!) really alarmed me. On the other hand, when I found myself in Vietnam, the variety of fruit was unfathomable. I ate so much I thought I'd wake up one morning like Gregor Samsa, instead finding myself having taken on the form of a plump custard apple. One thing I noticed over there was that when you've got such an abundance of good natural stuff to eat, you've got no reason to go scoffing all that processed stuff anyway.
I guess we're pretty lucky living here in that we get the best of both worlds. We can take a stroll through Vic Market to pick up good, fresh produce (not to mention those spanish doughnuts!). Then again, if we're in search for comfort food or something to mop up the one too many drinks we might have imbibed the previous evening, there's no shortage of places where we can go for that too (er, maybe those spanish doughnuts again).
Nevertheless, I'm still missing my bananas.
posted by yossarian | 8:02 PM
4 Comments:
...Were you ever visited by a masked man in your childhood going by the moniker of 'Bananaman'?
Banana-nana's rock!
i do actually recall some strange guy climbing through my window one night. do you remember those old ads for long grain rice with those dudes dressed up as rice grains? or the more recent ads for nicorettes with that giant cigarette? well, he looked kind of like them, except of course, he was a big yellow banana.
... and this actually happened just last week!
*sing it*"Yes, we have no bananas..."
i used to love/hate bananas: i hated the brown strings, the feel of the seeds in overripe ones. i wouldn't eat them. now i like them but can't afford them. i like them partially ripe: a little bit sweet, a little bit sour. how did you like the plantains or "lady finger" bananas in Vietnam? i think they are the best!
and as for unripe green bananas, well, that's like another post...
I miss banana's a whole lot! i've always taken them for granted and now they are gone :( well not gone but somewhat out of reach for the average consumer! Yesterday i was at a cafe and it was so hot so i ordered my favourite drink....'banana smoothie' only to be told that banana's have been replaced by mangoes!
number one: i hate mangoes
number two: i remember when i was a little kid my dad would very rarely buy a mango for himself and my brother and they would gobble it up in the knowledge that they were expensive and special. Now my humble banana has been replaced with them! whats wrong with the world?
I could maybe understand it if everyone was losing out...but i'm now reading that markets are selling banana's at nearly regular prices and supermarkets are now paying what they should pay...yet still charging us massive prices. This makes me sad! I never really thought i'd be so passionate or write so much about banana's!!
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