The actual eating isn't too different from humans. The real magic is in how monkeys peel their banana to get at the goodness inside. Bananas are delicious and work like a charm in pancakes, but odds are you're peeling them the way that you've been taught and never thought about it. So let's do it like the experts: monkeys.
step 1 Get a banana
This part is easy and open to some choice. This banana is nice and evenly yellow. I like mine to have more brown on the outside while others insist on there being a little …
step 2 Identify the top of the banana
Bananas grow in bunches pointing up with the stems on the bottom. The other side is really the top.
step 3 Pinch the top
Get a nice firm pinch on the top of the banana. You might get a bit of smooshed banana goop on your fingers, but with practice you can do it cleanly. Besides, the banana…
step 4 Peel
So you've pinched and gotten a good hold on some part of the peel. Great! Now pull it!
step 5 Repeat
Peel two or three more times and you'll have a beautiful banana to behold and eat.
step 6 Eat!
This banana was huge so I shared some of it with Mitch, who was helping me out by taking pictures. Mmm... banana.
step 7 The Beauty of it All
With the stem still intact you have a natural handle for the banana. There's no fumbling or trying to get the last bit out, it just happens easily and naturally.So toss the…
Banana snack industry goes stale
Not so long ago, the Central Java town of Majenang was famous for being the home of sale pisang, a unique snack made with bananas, but recently the market changed and the local snack industry faded to a fraction of its former success.
Majenang, one of 23 districts in Cilacap regency in the far west of the province - bordering with Banjar and Ciamis regencies in West Java - has about 30 small factories producing the snack.
Before the 1998 economic crisis, there were around 100 such producers, leading Cilacap administration to come up with the idea of making the snack the icon of Majenang.
But with the crisis, the plan hit snags and many cottage industries were forced out of business. More than a decade later, the situation has yet to improve.
"Before the crisis I could sell 2 or 3 tons of fried banana sweets to Jakarta. But things are difficult now," Yayat, a 61-year-old sale pisang business owner, told The Jakarta Post in Majenang.
Today, Yayat produces only about 200 kilograms of sale pisang a month, and 99 percent of this is sold in Majenang. The snacks are sold in 250-gram packages, each costing around Rp 25,000 (US$2).
Another snack producer, Juremi, said that before the crisis she could send 2 tons of sale pisang to Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya each month.
"Now we only sell sale pisang for the local market," the 60-year-old said.
Juremi said most of the snack producers were struggling to survive.
"What's important is that business survives. If there are buyers in the city, that's enough. Sometimes we get an order from outside the city, but this is unreliable," she said.
"Once, a distributor from outside the city wanted to place an order, but the price he offered was too low to cover our production costs. Rather than suffering losses, we preferred not to take it."
Making sale pisang does not take long. Ripe bananas are cut into slices and dried in the sun.
"If the sun is bright, the bananas will dry out in two days. But in a rainy season like this, it takes about four days," Juremi said.
The dried bananas are then smeared with flour and deep-fried. After being drained, the banana chips are ready to be packaged and sold.
The sale pisang business has supported many, including farmers and traders who sell raw bananas to cottage industries in Majenang, as well as banana snack makers such as Juremi and Yayat, and the vendors.
Majenang district head, Heru Susedyo, said he was aware of the stagnant business situation.
"Sale pisang was once so popular that the Cilacap administration planned to make it the icon of Majenang city, but the plan could not be realized because sales keep decreasing."
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/03/06/
Tuesday 10 November 2009
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