A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing them from dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind, which may have a variety of colors when ripe. The fruits grow upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless (parthenocarp) bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Most cultivated bananas are M. acuminata, M. balbisiana, or hybrids of the two.
Cooking bananas are a group of starchy banana cultivars in the genus Musa whose fruits are generally used in cooking. They are not eaten raw and generally starchy. Many cooking bananas are referred to as plantains or 'green bananas'. In botanical usage, the term "plantain" is used only for true plantains, while other starchy cultivars used for cooking are called "cooking bananas". True plantains are cooking cultivars belonging to the AAB group, while cooking bananas are any cooking cultivar belonging to the AAB, AAA, ABB, or BBB groups. The currently accepted scientific name for all such cultivars in these groups is Musa × paradisiaca. Fe'i bananas from the Pacific Islands are often eaten roasted or boiled, and are thus informally referred to as "mountain plantains", but they do not belong to any of the species from which all modern banana cultivars are descended.
Banana chips are deep-fried or dried, generally crispy slices of bananas. They are usually made from firmer, starchier banana varieties like the Saba and Nendran cultivars. They can be sweet or savory and can be covered with sugar, honey, salt, or various spices.
Fried plantain is a dish cooked wherever plantains grow, from West Africa to East Africa as well as Central America, the tropical region of northern South America and the Caribbean countries like Haiti to Cuba and in many parts of Southeast Asia and Oceania, where fried snacks are widely popular. In Indonesia it is called gorengan. It is called dodo in Yoruba in South West Nigeria, otherwise known as simply fried plantain in other parts of Nigeria. Kelewele is a fried spicy plantain or can be fried as a side dish for Red Red and fish stew in Ghana.
Bánh chuối is a sweet banana cake or bread pudding from Vietnam. Although its exact ingredients may vary, it is usually made with ripe bananas or plantains, rice flour, coconut milk, sugar, white bread, shredded young coconut, condensed milk, butter, egg, and vanilla extract. In the finished dish, the cooked banana often appears purplish-red in color.
A banana fritter is a fritter made by deep frying battered banana or plantain in hot oil. It is a common dish across Southeast Asia and South India.
A banana peel, called banana skin in British English, is the outer covering of the banana fruit. Banana peels are used as food for animals, an ingredient in cooking, in water purification, for manufacturing of several biochemical products as well as for jokes and comical situations.
Rhino Horn bananas, also called Rhino Horn plantains or African Rhino Horn, are hybrid banana cultivars from Africa. It produces strongly curved and elongated edible bananas which can grow to a length of two feet, the longest fruits among banana cultivars.
Musa acuminata is a species of banana native to Southern Asia, its range comprising the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many of the modern edible dessert bananas are from this species, although some are hybrids with Musa balbisiana. First cultivated by humans around 10 kya, it is one of the early examples of domesticated plants.
Burundi is situated in East Africa and has a territory full of mountains, savannas and agricultural fields, with forests in the surrounding rivers and waters. Agriculture is spread on 80% of the country's surface and it mainly includes coffee, tea, maize, beans and manioc. Due to these characteristics, Burundi cuisine is very representative of the African culinary culture, as it includes beans, which are the staple of Burundi cooking, exotic fruits, plantains, sweet potatoes, cassava, peas, maize and cereals, like corn and wheat.
Saba banana is a triploid hybrid (ABB) banana cultivar originating from the Philippines. It is primarily a cooking banana, though it can also be eaten raw. It is one of the most important banana varieties in Philippine cuisine. It is also sometimes known as the "cardaba banana", though the latter name is more correctly applied to the cardava, a very similar cultivar also classified within the saba subgroup.
Gabonese cuisine is the cooking traditions, practices, foods and dishes associated with Gabon, a sovereign state on the west coast of Central Africa. French cuisine is prevalent as a notable influence, and in larger cities various French specialties are available. In rural areas, food staples, such as cassava, rice and yams, are commonly used.
Pritong saging, also known as pritong saba, is a Filipino snack made from ripe saba or cardaba bananas sliced lengthwise and fried in oil. The bananas used are ideally very ripe, in which case it naturally caramelizes and no sugar is added. When younger starchier bananas are used, it is often eaten dipped in muscovado sugar, syrup, or coconut caramel (latik). Unlike the similar pisang goreng of neighboring countries, it is not as popular as street food. Instead it is regarded as a simple home-made snack, most commonly eaten for merienda.
Musa × paradisiaca is the accepted name for the hybrid between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Most cultivated bananas and plantains are triploid cultivars either of this hybrid or of M. acuminata alone. Linnaeus originally used the name M. paradisiaca only for plantains or cooking bananas, but the modern usage includes hybrid cultivars used both for cooking and as dessert bananas. Linnaeus's name for dessert bananas, Musa sapientum, is thus a synonym of Musa × paradisiaca.
Plantain may refer to:
True plantains are a group of cultivars of the genus Musa placed in the African Plantain subgroup of the AAB chromosome group. Although "AAB" and "true plantain" are often used interchangeably, plantains are just the most popular varieties among the AABs. The term "plantain" can refer to all the banana cultivars which are normally eaten after cooking, rather than raw, or it can refer to members of other subgroups of Musa cultivars, such as the Pacific plantains, although in Africa there is little to no distinction made between the two, as both are commonly cooked. True plantains are divided into four groups based on their bunch type: French, French Horn, False Horn, and Horn plantains.
Guanimes are a prepared food that can be traced back to the pre-Columbian era in Puerto Rico. Guanimas translates to corn bread By the Tainos who were native Indians from Puerto Rico. They are made with cornmeal, sugar, salt all purpose flour and butter wrap in banana leaves. That is the traditional way of Guanimas. You can ad salty cod fish or holy broth that is made of coconut milk and fish That is a typical meal for Ester week. All this add raisins, plantain and stuff are not a traditional way.
Plantain soup is eaten in various cuisines. In Colombian cuisine, the dish is known as sopa de patacón. There is also sopa de platanos in Latin American cuisine including Cuban cuisine and Puerto Rican cuisine.