How to Eat a Banana

For those of us who've eaten bananas all our lives, it may seem ridiculous to provide a tutorial on how to eat one. But to someone who's never eaten a banana (and there are many people in the world who haven't), it's as puzzling to them as eating a prickly pear,pomegranate, artichoke or durian for the first time might be to you.




steps

1. 1
   When shopping for bananas, avoid mistaking them for plantains. A plantain^[1] is a fruit that looks somewhat like a banana, but is very firm and starchy like a potato when unripe and mushy and somewhat sweet when it finally ripens. Plantains are not for eating raw but for cooking. (One of the many ways is to fry them.) Commercial plantains are generally larger, firmer, and colored darker and less evenly than bananas.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   
   
2. 2
   Check that your banana is ripe. Look for a banana that is yellow in color and lightly speckled with small brown or black speckles. Some people prefer the firmer yellow-all-over stage; some prefer the softer, sweeter, stronger-flavored yellow-and-brownish stage. Large brown spots indicate an over-ripe, mushy or even fermented banana. Use it for banana bread. Green bananas usually need more time to ripen. You can ripen raw bananas and other fruits more quickly by keeping them warm and confined together so that the ethylene gas each produces is retained and tells its neighbors to ripen more quickly as well. Don't seal everything tightly: a paper bag is often recommended to retain much of the ethylene but keep water from building up and rotting the fruit.
   
   
   
   
   

    Ripe banana
   • If you refrigerate a banana, the outside will quickly turn brown but it will stop ripening and deteriorate much more slowly than it would at room temperature. So refrigerate a banana only when it is about ripe, and eat it within a few days.
     
     
     
     
     

      Refrigerated banana
3. 3
   Peel the banana. Some people prefer to peel the entire thing and then eat it, while others peel as they go. There's more than one way to skin a banana:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

    Standard banana-peeling technique
   • One fun way is to while holding it in both hands, move both hands, in or out (anyway you like), while pulling away. Your banana will be in two pieces. This is also great for bananas for a smoothie!
   • Most people peel from the stem end. Firmly bend the stalk back at the end of the fruit, and pull backwards and down against the fruit. The lengthwise fibers in the rind will hold a strip together to pull off. Pull the rest of the skin off in similar strips (two is common).
   • You can also peel from the blossom (non-stem) end like a monkey. Breaking the dry blossom end scar requires less force and mashes the banana less than bending apart the tough stem end. It also usually leads to less "banana strings" and you can use the stalk as a handle as you eat all the way to that end. Pinch just behind the blossom end scar to break it apart, then peel bits of it downward. A tiny part of the firm, unappetizing blossom end scar may remain on the fruit. You might want to discard it.
     
     
     
     
     

      Banana peeled from blossom end
   • You can even peel the banana in one piece. Removing the fruit from the skin sideways through a single lengthwise slit leaves the peel intact enough to keep its messy inside facing inward. Push inward just below the stem on the side the banana curved away from until the outside of the skin splits. Then push down with a thumb on each side of the split and pull apart to deepen and widen it. Expose the end of the fruit, then hold the stem to bend it away and expose more fruit as you eat.
     
     
     
     
     

      One-piece banana peel
     • The one-piece method seems to require two hands to work well not only to peel the banana intermittently, but to hold it while eating: one to hold the end still containing banana, and another to flex the emptied end away from the fruit-containing end. It would be great for passengers to keep a car tidy, but not for the driver.
     • The one-piece method tends to keep the banana strings on the peel rather than the fruit. The reason might be that the banana is pushed out sideways with the peel pulling on a large part of its length at once, rather than gripping any given string only at a single point down across which the peel pulled but still leaving upward and downward points on the fruit to hold the string.
   • If you don't want the whole banana at once, cut it in half before peeling. You and a friend can peel it from the cut end without mess, or you can set the cut end of the other half on a plate or cover it with plastic wrap for later (perhaps the next day'scereal).
4. 4
   Remove the "banana strings" as you go. (The fibrous bits that run the length of the banana between the edible part and the peel.)
   
   
   
   
   

    Eating a banana
5. 5
   Get rid of the skin. Put it in the trash, use it, or toss it somewhere inconspicuous outdoors to decompose.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

    Throwing away a banana peel
   • If you are in a closed environment (such as in a car on a trip, or in a hotel room) either seal the peel in a closed bag or find another garbage can away from people. Banana peels can fill a room with their odd scent in no time.
   • Banana peels are very slippery: their thickness prevents them from being pushed away into a rough surface like oil. So keep them off streets and sidewalks.
     
     
     
     
     

      Someone could slip on this banana peel
   • Banana peels make very good compost. You may want to save your leftover banana peels if you collect compost for your garden.
   • Cows and other ruminants can digest all kinds of plant matter. If you have one, you could feed it a few banana peels. It might be best to rinse them first to remove any pesticides.
     
     
     
     
     

      Cow eating banana leaves
   • Alternatively, banana peels can be used in many recipes. Banana peels are a main ingredient in many east-Indian desserts and main courses.
   • Or put them on your face for a skin "treatment". ^[5] Even if they don't do much in the long run--we generally eat our food rather than absorbing it through our skin like lower life forms--they're soothingly slick, cool and free.

Alternate Methods

1. 1
   Try any of these ways to eat a banana:
   
• Make recipes like banana cake, banana milkshake, banana pudding, a banana split,banana bread, or chocolate banana bread!
  
  
  
  
  

   Banana split sundae
• Fry sliced bananas in butter, splash on some rum, and when the rum is hot, set fire to the fumes to impress your guests. Add a little orange juice and cook till hot again, sprinkle with dark brown sugar and serve with cream or ice cream. This dessert is so nice it is illegal in some countries.
• Mash a ripe banana and mix it with natural yogurt to make a delicious breakfast or dessert.
• Freeze a banana to eat as a nutritious Popsicle-like frozen treat. You can also coat in melted chocolate or insert a stick before freezing to make it easier to hold.
• Put sliced bananas in cereal - cold or hot.
• Use bananas as a binder in your favorite vegan dessert.
• Split a completely peeled banana lengthwise, put peanut butter in the middle, put the banana back together, and call it a fruit sandwich.
• Bananas can even make a kind of beer.^[6] Try it with some salty fried plantains!
  
  
  
  
  

   Banana beer
• Bear in mind that adding a banana does not exercise the calories from a big, rich dessert, but it can make a smaller, rich dessert taste great and more filling.

source by wikihow