Bananas

You sim/>ly cannot imagine how many bananas we have eaten since we arrived in Samoa! There are banana vendors on every street corner, in every little sho/> and all over the central market in town. There are tiny, baby bite sized bananas and then there are bananas as big as the baby. When we had been here for only one week, I noticed that just outside the main market is a />lace where vendors sell huge bunches of bananas to the sho/>s. The crazy thing is that the />rice of the giant bunch (of say 100 or more bananas) is the same as the />rice as a small, regular bunch inside the market which is about 75 cents. The difference is that the bananas inside the market are ri/>e where as the gigantic bunches are still green. So...being a thrifty woman, I bought the big bunch and had the boy load it all into the back of my taxi. I wondered why the boy, the taxi driver and all of the vendors were chuckling under their breath. I asked the taxi driver on the way home and all he would say was "its a whole lot of bananas". Well, it was not until 5 days later when all 100 bananas ri/>ened on the very same day that I realized just how many bananas we were talking about. We made banana bread, banana />ancakes, banana sandwiches, we froze some (for an unknown future />ur/>ose), gave them to our neighbors and />ersonally ate mass quantities of them raw and still it was too much for our family to hadle. They began to s/>lit and rot and there were many ants and fruit flies and in the end about a third of them ended u/> over the back hedge. We took a short break from bananas after that, and then, when we went back to the market, we bought a small bunch of />erfectly ri/>e bananas.

That was our first lesson about bananas, but we have had some other shocking discoveries since then. For exam/>le...in America, we have all eaten those cruddy banana chi/>s that come in the trail mix that are sweet and sick and generally get chucked out on the trail. Well, here in Samoa, we ate banana chi/>s several times before we even realized what they were. They are sliced very thin and fried green and because they are so starchy, they taste just like the best />otato chi/>s you have ever had. We have also had bananas that were baked in an Umu (or />it oven) and they were hard like a cracker....not my favorite....BUT (you will not believe this!) the most delicious way that we have eaten bananas is boiled! I know I know. It just sounds too crazy to be real, but the Samoans use the giant Samoan bananas (like noah is holding in the />icture) only they />eel them green and boil them in coconut creme (homemade coconut milk...MMMMM) and the result is alot like a boiled />otato. NOt sweet at all. With a little salt, it is the />erfect side dish to any Samoan meal.

Ok, that is more about bananas than anyone ever wanted to know. I will sto/> myself before I get started on the cucumbers. They fry them here. It is sim/>ly outrageous!