India’s “plantain man” has traveled widely to collect unusual banana varieties | Hacker News Reader

India’s “plantain man” has traveled widely to collect unusual banana varieties

atlasobscura.com

220 pointsfortran7778 comments

I'm so glad to see this post and be reminded of the variety of banana kinds that are available in my home country. In the US, I think it's only the Cavendish and maybe Plantain that are commonly seen in the markets. When people say 'buy banana' in the states, we know it's to buy cavendish. But in my home country, when I asked my mother to buy banana when she goes shopping, I had to tell her what specific kind.

I truly miss the variety of food and vegetables available in my home country. In the US, I will have to be rich to afford such variety of food and even then, I might not be able to access them immediately/fresh. I guess that's the price we pay for efficiency in the developed world (of food production which is more or less monoculture and corporatized).

Not sure the official varietal designation, but many latino-operated grocers in Metro NY area carry the "little banana" bunches common to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. They are memorably terrific when ripe. Tarter than the Cavendish. With a softer fruit inside.

I feel we could grow more varietals of everything as American palettes expand. I've seen many types of chili peppers in farmer's markets. And I'd put the taste test to Haitian mangos arriving here in early May with the best Alphonses the Indian Subcontinent has to offer ;)

Yes! I noticed that latino grocery stores have some common varieties that are available in my home country, which is in south asia. Those 'little banana' that you are referring to is one of them, but they taste slightly different from what's available in my country (close, but not exactly the same). :)

Also, for those who have never tried this before: try to make refreshing juice out of Tamarind (available in latino grocery shops) and maybe a spoon of sugar. Super delicious in the summer.

Also check any local Asian markets. Here in DC, we have a mix of latino, asian, and mid-eastern markets. The variety of fruits, vegetables, and seafood is great. Usually far less expensive than chain grocers too, even for "normal" items.

There's a pretty good Asian market in Austin if anyone's looking for one in that area.

Before Covid we'd drive up to Austin every few month's and resupply on curry paste and a couple other things.

We call that group of small bananas "lady finger" bananas in my country. There are dozens, maybe hundreds worldwide. Some popular ones are Nam Wah, Blue Java, Ice Cream, etc

the 'elaichi' banana is popular in india. https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/ever-heard-of-elaichi-bana...

Southern India, it is not available in the North. Most North Indians who haven't travelled have no idea it exists.

+1 If any of you get a chance, try the "Najangud rasbaLe" variety often found in Mysore. It's my absolutely favorite kind of banana

Edit 1: typos Edit 2: More details on what's ailing the rasbaLe and how fickle crops can be here: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/why-cultivation-karnat...

Thanks, noted!

That link says its available in Bihar.

Oh, I’ve never seen it in Punjab though. I’ve carried bunches to Punjab (where my parents live) and it’s always a novelty there.

Alphonsos are a marketing success but far from the best mangoes the Indian subcontinent has to offer. Bland and tending to sourness. This battle plays out every summer on Indian Twitter.

There are many great varieties besides the Alphonso, that are popular in different parts of India. Examples include the Langda, the Malda and the Raspuri varieties. Quite different from one another and each with its own devoted following.

I found Mexican mangoes to be a pale imitation of the Indian varieties. Surprisingly, the best mangoes I have tasted in America were from two huge trees in the backyard of a place we were renting in Hawaii. The trees had shed hundreds of mangoes with hundreds more on the trees themselves, and then caretakers were only too happy to see us enjoy them. Made my Hawaii trip memorable!

Malda and Langda (my fav) are quite similar. Other popular varieties are Daseri, Totapuri, Safeda, Chausa

> I found Mexican mangoes to be a pale imitation of the Indian varieties.

Do you mean produce you bought fresh in tropical regions in Mexico e.g. at a local market stall, or produce you bought in a US supermarket, imported from Mexico by a large-scale distributor?

There are great fresh mangoes available in markets in southern Mexico, tastier than the ones easily found in the US. Similar story for other tropical fruits, including bananas. The demands of long-distance shipping and wide distribution force significant compromises in most types of fresh produce.

Disclaimer: I have never been to India.

> best mangoes I have tasted in America were from two huge trees in the backyard ... in Hawaii

Yeah now try to grow those at commercial scale and keep them as tasty weeks later after shipping them hundreds of miles across several layers of supply chain.

Its funny how one person can make a difference. I used to visit a small banana farm in La Conchita before a mud slide destroyed it. I had never seen such a variety of bananas.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-aug-28-fo-banan...

I wouldn't be so hasty to call a lack of variety a result of efficiency. Sure that may be one factor, but it isn't trivial to ship such perishables like fruits and vegetables half way around the globe in a way that consumers are willing to pay for quality that shows up. There are some products that just can't be transported in a way that maintains the level of quality a consumer would be willing to pay for.

In the case of bananas, efficiency is precisely the problem. The Cavendish is so popular that the entire production pipeline has been hyper-optimized for it.

Exactly my feelings. I miss this (http://organicbasket.in/product/chakkarakeli/) variety the most.

In the USA, we do the same thing, but with apples. Many grocery stores will carry like 10 different kinds of apples. I personally love honeycrisp and opal.

Depending on where you live local markets might do. A guy I talked to in Perry Utah mentioned 22 peach varieties.

+1. I was in Peru last year and one of the most memorable thing that happened was eating a Changalikodan banana that is only found in India (Asia?)/Latin America. I missed it so much (hard to get it in the US) that I ate like 3-4 right there in the market. We now find them at our local Mexican store but it's a hit or miss.

Bananas are relatively easy to grow in California, Florida, Louisiana, and Hawaii, and there are short-cycle varieties that are being tested in Georgia and elsewhere. I encourage everyone to grow them if your climate will allow for it -- they're one of the easiest, most-productive fruits you can grow. Here are a few resources.

bananas.org is a great forum for learning about the world of backyard banana growing.

Jon at Encanto Farms has a nice encyclopedia of banana varieties: http://webebananas.com/bvar-A-B.html

He also has a good guide for beginners on how to grow them: http://webebananas.com/culture.html

My mom used to have lots of banana trees, but she ripped them out because she did not like the way they looked. I would fry them with salt and pepper. Best tasting fruit I tasted in a while.

The bananas were one of the stuffs I always missed during overseas trips. The variety of bananas you get in Kerala is very rare in Europe, where in markets it's always the same type and mostly same brand.

Yup, the Cavendish is what you find in non-banana-growing countries. Almost the only species of banana on the planet to get exported to other countries, as it is uniquely able to with stand the long journey. And, like most hardy, exportable fruit, it has one of the blandest flavors.

It's also very susceptible to a fungal blight, the Panama disease, which may eventually end up wiping out the entire variety, and make exported bananas a rarity.

> It's also very susceptible to a fungal blight, the Panama disease

Cavendish having good resistance to Panama disease is why it replaced Gros Michel, which was devastated by Panama disease. I think the current threat to Cavendish is black sigatoka, a different fungal blight.

EDIT: as pointed out down thread, there's a newer mutation of Panama disease threatening Cavendish. So the parallel to Gros Michel is closer than I remembered, and parent is correct.

There's a new variant of panama disease that can infect cavendish called TR4. Likely that is only fixable by genetically engineering resistant cavendish.

If we can do that, genetically engineering resistant Gros Michel would probably be a better choice, since Cavendish became popular just because the (otherwise preferred) Gros Michel was not an option.

I don't know about that. The Gros Michel supposedly has more of the chemical that's used for artificial banana flavor, and I've always hated that flavor.

This is a radical departure from the bananas most of us eat, which are all clones of the exact same plant.

https://www.newsweek.com/worlds-bananas-are-clones-and-they-...

It's funny how history repeats but we don't learn. The most popular banana variety used to be the Gros Michel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Michel_banana but it was almost completely wiped out by a fungus. Now the Cavendish that replaced it is also being wiped out by a fungus.

Long ago I mail-ordered a few boxes of exotic bananas from Seaside Banana Gardens. A mudslide took them out of business. Apparently, they're back on a smaller scale.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-09-mn-199-st...

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Ventura-Banana-Plantatio...

https://laist.com/2016/01/19/b_a_n_a_n_a_s.php

I finally had the money to subscribe, and they were gone. They offered more varieties of bananas than a California dispensary offers of cannabis flowers. The ones we know in stores are absolutely the most boring choices.

I don't know if you've heard of these guys:

https://miamifruit.org/collections/banana-pre-orders

Depending on the import laws in your state, you can get some really rare tropical fruits.

At $10/lb, those are some expensive bananas!

If you're interested in watching someone try a bunch of these bananas, check out WeirdExplorer on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skpfnZEpWh4

> Vinod poses with a bunch of banana varieties.

Just look at the pride in that man. Way to go, Mr. Nair! You brought your dream to life.

I've grown bananas at our backyard and our family farm in Kerala, and my oh my do I hate them haha. Story time.

Anyways, one thing really annoying about banana trees is how dry them get during the summers. It's literally just a husk of dried plant matter that's upright. So you can guess what happened when I had to burn some compost and organic waste, while not taking into account windspeeds. Nearly burned down our neighbor's clothes hanging on the side, and possibly his house too when the fire nearly went out of control.

The trees are too hardy that even if you cut them by the stem, then burn the remainder, they'll still grow after a few months. If you really want to pull out a banana tree, you better get an excavator to grab them by the roots.

Another thing, the sap from the Banana tree can really mess up any clothing you have, especially white ones.

> Another thing, the sap from the Banana tree can really mess up any clothing you have, especially white ones.

Seriously. The first time I wielded a machete and went cutting plantain on my friend's plantation in Cameroon, the outing cost me a set of clothes. See the black spot on a ripe banana ? They are oxidized sap, which is effectively indelible on fabric.

That's because they're not really trees, and the above ground portion of the plant is more accurately a pseudostem. The actual "stuff" is underground as a corm.

Exactly. We learnt in school that banana stems are actually underground, but man are they hardy.

Is there no way to utilize the pseudostem besides burning?

Got a sudden hankering for some banana flower pakodas :)

In Haiti there’s over 150 varieties of mango.

I’ve eaten maybe ten distinct kinds[0]. Not only are they visually distinct but, as you’d imagine, unique in taste as well.

Made me feel like my sense of “mango” to that point in my life was nothing more than cherry flavored syrup.

[0] Ti Kouzin might be my favorite!

Curious. The article states that Mr. Vinod Sahadevan Nair is 60 YO, and graduated with a degree in physics, and then worked as a web designer. Mr. Lee released the web in 1989, and Mr. Nair was in his early 30s. The web wouldn't grab hold for designers for a few more years, so Mr. Nair would be close to 40 if not older. I guess that fits...

I just love seeing Atlas Obscura here on HN. They're always a good read. This is no exception.

That first photo collection made me laugh: "Clockwise from top-left: Rasakadali or ney poovan bananas; a plantation of Kerala’s beloved nendran bananas; and ducks on the farm."

Just a seemingly random picture of some ducks he's raising on a banana farm.

Ducks eat bugs and poop fertilizer, it's a win-win.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/duck-pest-control

Every time an article from this site appears on here I'm reminded how beautifully designed their website is too. Typefaces, colours, no clutter. It's refreshing.

Only downside is that they don't offer the choice of non-personalised ads and no-tracking/no-profiling. It's getting profiled or not getting on the site.

I was once backpacking in India and I ran into a guy in South India (I think in what is now Telangana) who was pursuing a similar passion, except with mangos instead of bananas. I have a postcard from him somewhere in my stuff. I'll try to get his name and share the name of his farm.

Some varieties of bananas are quite hardy. The most hardy is the musa basjoo. That can overwinter in zone 6b (-5F). This guy has a banana jungle, in Ohio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9mIc3IymJ0

It’s eye opening to eat a fresh banana. In Mexico I ate what I can describe only as a “juicy” banana. Much richer in flavor and pungent than what we buy in the states. I strongly recommend it if you’re ever in an area that grows bananas.

That’s pretty much the case for all American food. Tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, and every single fruit and vegetable I buy here pales in comparison to what I ate as a child. Once in a while I’ll get a blueberry that tastes close to the real thing and it just serves as a reminder.

It pains me very much to see unfortunately that food being grown in India is also moving very much in that American "large, beautiful, homogenous, easy to store and transport but bland and tasteless" direction. As an example, the market of guavas in Indias has completely transformed in last two-three years.

As an example, in the last few years, our markets have gotten flooded by these monster guavas.

https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/others/iihr...

I am sure they improve the farmers yield and profitablity, but they are about as watery and flavourless as a guava can possibly get. You literally get nothing on your nose when you take a sniff of one of these. Tragic. Heartbreaking.

It seems like this is inevitable whenever a country's people move from producing their own food or buying locally to getting their food from large supermarkets.

My back yard has about 7-8 banana trees and I get fruit from 1 of them every year. I dont know enough about them to know what variety they are, but this year I got 20 6-8" long 3" diameter (yes, they are stubby and fat) bananas that once ripe were among the tastiest and sweetest Ive ever eaten. My goal now is to see if I can start encouraging the plants to make more next year...

Edit: most likely they’re Orinoco bananas

One of the great advantages of growing your own fruits is that you have access to a wide variety that do not pack or ship well.

Those of us in the PNW know of the Ranier Cherry, but they don't frequently appear outside the region. As a child I decided that Bing cherries were the best, and it took me a long while to accept that Raniers taste much better to me.

Similarly with peaches. NPR had an interview almost 10 years ago now with someone who was interested in expanding the varieties of peaches from 'yellow' and 'white' the way we have apples, but many peaches are thin skinned, and bruise easily, so it's a challenge.

Mulberries store so badly you practically have to go bush-to-table, which is a challenge because the birds love them so you can't just store them on the plant until you need them.

And more than enough has been said about the virtues of vine ripe tomatoes that I don't need to add to it here.

I love Raniers, and they're not at all rare in grocery stores in Minnesota. Only downside is that they're significantly more expensive than Bings.

The Pisang Seribu (1000 fingers banana) is indeed a sight to behold. I grew up in a village and people often plant them in their yard. Imagine seeing a 2 meters stalk filled to the brim with bananas. There were also this wild bananas with red fruits as big as forearm with seeds as big as bb pellets. Too bad they aren't sold anywhere, it's all cavendish these days.

No thread about banana varieties can be considered complete without mentioning the Nendran or Nendrapazham variety. It is a bit different in appearance and more so in taste, than common consumer bananas. A bit larger. Found mostly in Kerala in India. Can be eaten either uncooked or boiled/steamed, both after ripening. I don't know how to describe the taste, sorry, ecxept to say that it is unique / distinct and very good, while somewhat different from common bananas found in the markets. Texture inside is also different.

Google, plus see

https://healthyliving.natureloc.com/common-banana-types-avai...

Images:

https://www.google.com/search?q=nendra+pazham+banana&prmd=vi...

Not to mention, sliced thinly and deep-fried (in coconut oil, if in Kerala) to make Banana Chips, or battered and fried to make Pazhampori. It's like no other banana!

Edit: to be fair, no banana is like no other banana. I love them all.

I haven't had it in those ways, only raw (ripe) and steamed. Good to know!

Nice handle.

Thank you!

Nendran is also briefly mentioned in the Taxonomy section of this article about banana:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana

The 12 foot tall, 1000-finger banana plant is quite amazing. Nature really outdoes itself sometimes.

Standing next to that must be humbling, as it is more bananas (small, but still) on a single cluster than a single store would carry.

Useless comment, but I thought it was interesting they chose "plantain man" since "banana man" rolls of the tongue in a much more pleasant way. Missed opportunity?

As a grape grower & breeder I appreciate all fruit/botanical nerds.

But on the topic of bananas, does anybody else find they give them headaches? Like even small quantities? I used to love them, and ate lots of them. Not just Cavendish, but other varieties too when I could get them. I find they all do this to me now and it's worsened over the years. Annoyingly when I search for information on bananas and headaches I always find articles proclaiming them as a cure for headaches, not a cause.

Look up the link between potassium and magnesium and headaches.

Although most US markets carry just one type, the Cavendish, you can easily get a few more varieties at various ethnic markets. Pay a quick visit to the Indian/South Asian stores for a delight!

I have also heard about interesting varieties at Berkeley Bowl, but I haven't personally checked it out though.

I'm secretly cheering on the demise of the oversold Cavendish

Well if that one disease has anything to say about it you just might get your wish!

I ate a banana off a tree I happened upon while hiking in a small jungle in Tobago (north of Venezuela). It was awful, and a reminder how cultivation is such a fascinating science. (Yes, it definitely wasn't ripe, but I just wanted to try it because I'd never seen it before!)

In Tobago, it could have also been a green fig. (Not saying you're wrong of course)

Bananas are awful when not ripe. In temperate climates, most bananas are harvested before they are ripe before they are imported, and they taste so bad it took me a few years to get used to them. They're just grainy, hard, and tasteless compared to a banana that matured on a bunch (even if that bunch was cut from the tree).

It could also be the variety, I'm not sure.

Even the bananas that ripen on the plant (turned yellow and all) need some time after harvest to convert all the starch into sugar. They still taste a bit starchy right after the harvest.

Raw banana is used to make delicious "podi"(oil fried batter), even some other dishes as well.

Stir fry made from raw banana is delicious: https://www.pachakam.com/recipes/kaya-mezhukkupuratti

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