the more green marks on a banana, the less ripe it is and the longer it will last; however when underripe it is indigestible and cannot be eaten right away; when the flesh responds to light finger pressure and the skin turns yellow with some dark specks with no green colouring left, the banana is ready to eat; it is now more digestible since its starches have been transformed into sugar; the riper the banana and the more brown spots it has, the sweeter it is: its flesh becomes softer and is perfect for making desserts.

unlike other fruit, bananas refuse to be refrigerated and will turn black as soon as they come into contact with cold;

hang bananas from a hook;

if you wish to speed up their ripening, place them in a brown paper bag;

to freeze, remove the skin; freeze whole or purée, depending on how you will use them; sprinkle with warm lemon juice as soon as you remove them from the freezer to prevent oxidation;

hint: try whipping half-thawed bananas; they tend to become very foamy and resemble whipped cream.

Peel bananas just before using, since the flesh oxidizes rapidly when it comes into contact with air;

A marriage of hearts and minds
bananas love cream and butter

Use

• green: as a vegetable pan-fried in butter
• yellow: plain
• brown: see recipes

Etiquette
At the table, bananas shouldn't just be chomped down. Etiquette manuals say they should be peeled with a knife and eaten with a fork.

Philippines
There are many varieties of banana in the Philippines, from the saba or "cooking" banana to the small sweet latundan. There is also the large bongolan that is exported to foreign markets, the morado garbed in a reddish skin, the Espanola and senoritas, hardly bigger than a finger.

The saba is used as the main ingredient in "pochero," a thick meat stew, though it is also used to sweeten nougat and other candy. The heart of the "puso ng saging" banana tree is used as a vegetable. The leaves are used to wrap "ibos," "tinumis" and other foods cooked over the coals. In Aklan province, the head of the banana tree is considered a gastronomic treat, savoured in a local specialty called "manok nga inubaran" or chicken with banana tree top, and this part of the tree is even celebrated in a popular song.