El Camino

(This post was written by my co-conspirator, Koali)

I like bananas, but don’t love them. Often when I wanted Dorritos, juice, or candy as a kid, my mom (health conscious person that she was) offered bananas as an alternative. We grew tiny tart apple bananas, sweet bluish green ice cream bananas, and cooking bananas in our yard. When none were ripe on our property some could be found in the yard of our neighbor. If I complained about eating bananas, a banana smoothie or banana ice-cream (frozen bananas run through the food processor) were offered as alternatives. My relationship with bananas is a long and tenuous one.

As you all know, Honduras’s relationship and history with bananas is longer, more complex, and pained then my own. Export and production of bananas by the U.S. began in the late 1800s and since then the U.S. has continued to exploit the country economically and otherwise. Honduras embraces “free trade” much more than some of its neighbors. Here’s how the Honduran Department of Tourism magazine we picked up described it free trade zones: “companies [can] operate under a free trade zone status, [and experience benefits] such as tax-free imports and exports of raw materials…These companies are also excluded from paying income and municipal taxes, and have the possibility of repatriating 100% of their revenue” (Destination Honduras, 2006).

Despite the large numbers of bananas that are exported from Honduras, they are still cheap, highly available, and consumed frequently and in every imaginable form here (unlike the cigars which apparently are almost all exported). Often they are cooked green and served as a savory snack or accompaniment to a meal.

Some savory preparations we’ve tried:

• Banana chips- Salty, like potato chips but yellow
• Banana French fries- Cut into the identical rectangular strips as U.S. fries and sold out of stalls along the street with deep fried chicken
• Tajada de platono- Deep-fried green banana slices topped with cabbage and a chickeny sauce in Copan or served with fish and rice on the coast. Delicious!
• Tamales with potatoes and chicken steamed in banana leaves and sold steaming hot out of the back of pick-up trucks

The sweet preparations are equally delicious:

• Tajada de platono maduro- Like the sweet plantains at Pambiche
• Liquados con leche o agua- Icy and delicious banana smoothies
• Liqaudo de platano- Made with a boiled plantain rather then bananas. Richer, thicker, and more cinnamony
• Banana soda- Made by Pepsi, enjoyed by many. I’m not a fan of the soda or its impact on peoples teeth/health
• Banana bread- At least three times as dense and banana-y as American banana bread and totally delicious

Our “All-Banana” snack collection for our bus trip home from Tela. No, this was not by choice or design. Featured: banana chips, banana bread, and the source fruit itself.