Bananas

There are a lot of varieties of bananas in the Philippines. I miss those bananas. It's always part of our meal. If somebody saw me eating banana they will say " kain nguy". It's ok they will call me "nguy" a nickname for monkey because I admit I can eat banana as much as I can in one seating. Sometimes if we don't have vain...We will eat rice with banana and it's already a meal. I can assure banana is nutritious, delicious and economical fruit.

Bananas are a good source of dietary fibre, Vitamin C and potassium. A plain banana is less than 1% fat and 364 kilojoules per 100g. When harvested when the fruit is mature but still green the banana is mostly starch and about 1% sugar. As they ripen the starch converts entirely to sugar.

Let me enumerate the bananas I know we produce in our country.

1. Lakatan - long finger shape,orange color with a sweet aroma taste which are usually serve as table fruit in some occasion

2. Senorita - are most found in cold places like Tagaytay /laguna/batangas or commonly known as CALAVARZON which particularly grow with mild climate. smaller in nature coapred to Latundan matched with a thin skin that may last only from 2-3 days ripening period. This is so sweet.

3. Saba - used commonly for cooking like fried, boiled,roasted banana, turon and is widely spread all over the country.

4.Latundan - tastes bitter to sweet, commonly used as curefor diarrhea loose vowel movement. In some cases, mothers feed their children with this kind to improve thier child’s digestive organ…

5. Butuan - likely similar to SABA but bigger shapes, has tiny black seeds and thicker skin. Most are found in the Visayas region.

6. Sweet Banana Milk - wilder variety of Latundan with a sweeter taste and aroma. last with almost black peel but has a firm and white meat inside. This can be find in some areas with virgin forest and wildly breed by several backyard growers in the Northern part of Luzon like Ilocos Region and Viscaya region..

7. Red bananas are a variety of bananas with a reddish-purple skin. They are smaller and plumper than the traditional Cavendish banana. When ripe, raw red bananas have a flesh that is cream to light pink in color, and their texture is somewhat soft and sweeter than the yellow Cavendish varieties, with a slight raspberry-banana flavor. They are best eaten soft, but not bruised. They are imported from Costa Rica and are a favorite in Central America, red bananas are also known as Jamaican bananas.

8. Cavendish - having a long finger like with white meat and thick skin. This variety may last up to 40 days if not treated. Common exporters send this one to mny countries but is not sellable in the Philippines because of its lesser taste and aroma. Its most likely cheaper than any other banana.

I remember back there I usually bought fruit bunch and it will only stay for two days thats with supervision if not only one day and it's gone. All of us loves señorita. Atleast now my mom told me our plant gave them more fruits now. Actually before I left our plant gave us fruit bunch. That was so nice. I love it.

Bananas are a good source of dietary fibre, Vitamin C and potassium. A plain banana is less than 1% fat and 364 kilojoules per 100g. When harvested when the fruit is mature but still green the banana is mostly starch and about 1% sugar. As they ripen the starch converts entirely to sugar.

I taugth bananas here are yummy, honestly bananas in our country are the best banana I ever ate.