Red bananas are a variety of banana with reddish-purple skin. They are smaller and plumper than the common Cavendish banana. When ripe, raw red bananas have a flesh that is cream to light pink in color. They are also softer and sweeter than the yellow Cavendish varieties, with a slight raspberry-banana flavor. Many red bananas are imported from producers in Asia and South America. They are a favorite in Central America but are sold throughout the world.
In looking for other pictures of red bananas on the internet, most of the ones I have found show a darker, earthier red than these. More like this banana variety from Stokes Nursery in the States.
Have any of you readers seen the red bananas in your market? Tasted them?
I promise that the next time I see them, I'll buy and be a taste tester.
4 comments:
Those type of bananas are common here, cheaper at this time of year but available all year. They are very good, much sweeter. I looked at the link and I haven't seen any bananas here that are that dark. We have small yellow, small red, larger red, and really tiny yellow along with the regular yellow ones we know from up north - those are called Roatan here. The smaller red ones like in your picture are I think the ones called Manzana here. I'm not positive about that though, it could be the slightly larger red ones - I'll check next time I'm at the store.
Definitely buy some and try, I think you'll like them.
Oh I forgot something. When I see them, I see very dark red ones. The insides are quite yellow and tangy in taste.
Actually they are rare in Tegucigalpa. Maybe people have them in other towns, but I don't see them often here. I like the little finger bananas.
All kinds of bananas are sold in US supermarkets. In less diverse neighborhoods I think they get passed over because customers don't even know which are bananas and which are plantains, and so they may only have small baskets displayed. Markets where there is a large hispanic/latin clientele will have mountains of whatever kind are plentiful. The smallest are sometimes called "Dominicas" in Mexico. We read somewhere that Walmart sets the market price for Cavendish (Chiquita and Dole are often the only labels here, with Chiquita being the much more attractive product) and as prices for everything goes up and ordinary banana prices have been static at around .50 lb for twenty years one does wonder. You know people laboring on the plantations don't earn anything near a living wage; this, and news of union plantation workers being let go en masse in Honduras, and well, bananas just don't taste too good.
Regards,
Nanner Puddin
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