Bananas [B-A-N-A-N-A-S]

Post by Lara

20 November 2012

As requested by our dear friend Diane, this post will try to explain the different types of bananas that grow here and what they are like.  If you include plantains, there are at least 4 varieties of bananas available in Sierra Leone, and we were lucky enough to be assigned a site where all of those varieties grow.  This means that not only can we buy a hodgepodge of different bananas in the market, but also many friends of ours enjoy sending us bananas (note: Giving something as a gift is referred to as “sending” for the person you are giving it to. It is incredibly common here for someone to ask you to send for them if you’re going to be traveling somewhere. For us, this is often awkward and annoying, but we’re getting used to it). 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, plantains are big starchy bananas that are denser and less sweet than their smaller counterparts. Apparently you can eat them raw, but we prefer them cooked. We enjoy eating them fried in oil for breakfast (especially with honey mustard or cinnamon sugar on top), cooked in curry sauce and served over rice, or as an ingredient in Yebe, or porridge (see earlier post).  Plantains are eaten both green and ripe, and there is a marked difference in texture and taste.  The green plantains are a lot more potato-like, and we tend to use them as a substitute for potatoes in certain recipes. The ripe plantains are sweeter and mushier, and so make a good base for curry sauce or porridge.  A bunch of 4 or 5 plantains is usually sold for Le 2000, or about $.45. 

Students at CSS planting banana trees

Among the sweet bananas that we’ve had here, there are common bananas and a tarter, denser fruit called ndolajele in Mende [plural: ndolajelesia].  In our town, a bunch of sweet bananas sells for Le 500, or about 11 cents.  In Bo or Freetown the price goes up. We used to pay Le 1000 for a bunch in Bo, so when we came to site and found out they were half the price, we were ecstatic.  We tend to buy bananas every few days. They don’t keep incredibly long, but if they over-ripen then we mash them up and throw them into whatever we’re cooking as a sweetener, or make dessert with them.

The common bananas are usually smaller than the ones available in American grocery stores- about 5 inches long and only about an inch in diameter, but they have so much more banana taste than anything I’ve had outside of Sierra Leone, I sometimes wonder if I’m going to ever eat a grocery store banana again (probably yes, but it won’t be the same now that I know what I’m missing).  You can buy common bananas green as well, and they are a lot like green plantains—somewhat potato-like in texture and flavor. 

Ndolajele comes in two forms: young and mature. The young fruits are bright yellow with very thin skins and very white fruit. They are shorter and fatter than common bananas, and they have a distinct tart/sweet taste. They are incredibly delicious, and we buy them whenever we see them.  Also, our friends know that we are all about these guys, so they get “sent” to us frequently—as I type, there is a bag of about 20 ndolajelesia in our parlor waiting to be devoured. Mature ndolajelesia are longer and fatter (up to 2” in diameter) and the fruits are softer, but they still have the distinctive tart taste that makes these bananas so desirable.  If you let them over-ripen, mature ndolajelesia are perfect for banana bread or other baking endeavors, because they get soft and somewhat creamy. 

Below are examples of the various bananas we have seen here— left to right: young ndolajele, mature ndolajele, common bananas (green), common bananas (ripe), plantains (ripe):