 |
|
Young Bananas |
Bananas distribute the most vastly in all tropical
fruits in the world. It is a large-sized herbal plant; it has no
seeds, and it regenerates through the sprouts growing out from its
underground roots. Banana plants can produce fruits in the second
year of their planting; and they can produce flowers and fruits all
the year round; thus, they are also given a nickname - "a quick
fruit".
Southeast Asia is a land of bananas and some rare banana varieties
grow there. Common banana fruit stalks generally drop downward;
however, the fruit stalks of some banana plants there point upwards;
therefore, people generally call them "bananas uplifting the
sky", and the fruits of this kind of banana are quite special
too. The outer skin of the bananas turn yellow before getting ripe,
while other bananas are often green before they become ripe.
 |
|
Cooking Banana
(Musa sapientum Linn.) |
A kind of banana plant grown in Indonesia is more
peculiar, because its buds only prolapse when they produce fruits.
What is more interesting is that, the fruit stalks of this kind of
bananas grow longer and longer, until they touch the ground surface.
On the stalks, bundles upon bundles of bananas are growing, and the
bananas can be as many as 800 pieces. Ripe bananas on the plants are
sweet and tasty, and are loved by the local people.
On the religious or social ceremonies in India, bananas are regarded
as something auspicious. The myths of Europe also canonize bananas
and treat bananas as "holy fruits". The people in ancient
India and Persia believed that bananas were "healthy fruits
endowed by heaven".
Bananas have important functions in protecting human health. Outside
the banana pulps, there is a layer of thick banana skin, which can
protect bananas from being polluted by micro mechanisms. In the
meanwhile, bananas have no seeds in their pulps, which makes eating
them easier; and the flavors and nutrition of the bananas are also
kept intact. Bananas can supply energy to the human bodies very
quickly; if we mix banana pulps with milk before eating, the mixture
is an ideal food for keeping balance of necessary nutrition.
Banana pulps are soft and smooth. They are easy for digestion and
have no thrills. Banana pulps also contain a kind of anti-canker
compound (some people believe it is vitamin U), which can neutralize
excessive acidity in the gastric juice. If we eat ripe bananas, they
can help us to cure gastric ulcer effectively, to mitigate urgent
symptoms, and to hold us to recover from such illness more quickly.
Some people even believe that banana is the only safety food for
patients who are suffering from gastric ulcer.
Eating banana can also facilitate digestion, because the pectin in
bananas can absorb water and improve the biological conditions in
the intestines. According to the experiences of other folks, if
banana pulps are pounded into jam, adding in some tamarinds and a
bit salt, bananas can also help to treat urgent and chronic
diarrhea.
Eating banana is also helpful for preventing arthritis and gout.
Banana is rich in iron content and is beneficial for the blood to
generate lurid protein. Bananas contain very little salt and very
high carbonhydrate; therefore, eating them is also beneficial for
the recovery of patients who are suffering from nephritis and
uremia. According to the
experience of the Brazilian people, drinking banana juice can also
cure tuberculosis.
If banana pulps are pounded into paste and are coated on the surface
of the wounds, they have quite obvious effects for healing burns and
wounds.
Besides, the banana flowers can improve the secretion of progestin
and reduce menstrual flow; young banana leaves are cold in nature,
and can be used to treat dermatitis and herpes.
Plantain has many other names. According to the records in ancient
Chinese documents: "plantain is a kind of herbal plant; its
leaves are green, long, big and pointed in the two ends. There is a
Chinese proverb: "the flowers of chrysanthemum do not fall just
like the leaves of plantain". According to the records in a
book named "the Foreign Matters of the Qing Dynasty",
there were also many interesting stories about Plantain. There was a
man named Qian Huaisu in the Tang Dynasty; he liked calligraphy, but
he could not afford to buy painting papers; therefore, he planted a
lot of plantains in his yard and he practiced his calligraphies on
the plantain leaves. Finally, he became a very famous calligrapher.
The second story goes: there was a man named Zhao Chunjie in South
Han Dynasty; he liked plantain very much and he planted a lot of
plantains around his house. The people of his time called him a
"plantain fan". The third story goes: there was a man
named Feng Hanzhang, he saw a woman in green was standing in front
of his window when he was reading at dust. The woman's family name
was Jiao and she was extremely beautiful. When Feng went to touch
her clothes, the woman ran away in a hurry and left a piece of
cloth. Feng put that piece of cloth under his bed, and when he
looked at it on the second morning, the cloth became a piece of
plantain leave. So the legend goes: since Feng Hanzhang planted
plantain in his yard, the clothes of that woman were actually the
leaves of plantain. From all the above, we can see that plantain is
quite popular among common folks.
In Xishuangbanna, besides being used as foods and medicines,
plantain also has a natural relation with the people's daily life.
The marrows of the plant, the young leaves and the plantain flowers
are also vegetables for the local residents, and the residents have
many ways for cooking these stuffs. Of them, the most popular dish
is the "fried plantain flower". The cooking method is:
clean and cut the flowers into pieces first; then, rub them with
salt and clean them again; after washing away the astringent
flavors, fry them with other ingredients; and the dish can be served
when ripe. Another method is: clean the flowers and cut them into
pieces, after washing away the astringent flavors, cook them into a
soup with other ingredients such as canned pork. This dish tastes
delicious too. The method for the Dai folks to eat plantain flowers
is quite peculiar too. They will first put the flowers over the fire
and burn them ripe; then, they will take the flowers out and eat
them together with a kind of vegetable sauce. Besides, they also
like to eat pickled young plantain leaves. The method is: wash the
young leaves clean and cut them into short sections of 15 cm long;
mix the young leaves with salt and put them in the jars for
pickling, and the dish will be ready in 4-7 days. The Aini People
have two different plantain dishes: one is the pickled marrows of
the plantain plants, and the method for making it is quite simple:
cut the marrows into pieces and batch them with salt and soup, then
pickle them in jars, and take them out after 2-3 days. This dish is
normally seen on the wedding ceremonies of the Aini folks, when they
are served with plantain leaves as the bowls. Another dish is meat
fried with plantain flowers, and the cooking method is as follow:
wash the flowers clean, cut them into pieces, saturate the flowers
in salt water for a minute, clean it again, and wait for using. When
cooking, first put the dog's meat into the frying pan and fry it to
nearly ripe; then, put the plantain flowers into the meat, and fry
them ripe together. This dish is usually served on the banquets held
after the completion of an Aini people's house. The plantain leave
is oblate, with a length of 1.3-3 meters and a width of 40-50 cm;
the surface of the leave is clean, smooth and waterproof; after
being dried naturally or saturated with hot water, the leave is
quite flexible and is hard to tear apart. Because of these special
properties, the Dai folks make use of them quite skillfully. The
most common method is to use the leaves for packing foods, such as
sticky rice and toast fish etc. In each Water-splashing Festival and
other festive days, each Dai family will make a lot of "Hao Luo
Suo" (a kind of sticky rich food with sweet flavor) to treat
their guests, and the plantain leaves are the best materials for
packing such foods. Since the food cannot stick to the leaves, so it
will be more convenient for the guests to eat the food. Besides, the
foods can also take on some outstanding smell if they are packed
with plantain leaves. All the ethnical groups in Xishuangbanna raise
pigs; and they often cut the stalks of plantain plants into pieces
and use them as the pig's fodders. More, in the folk songs of
Xishuangbanna, there are also lyrics such as: "the beau is the
plantain leave and the young girl is the marrow".
 
|