Bananas

Bananas are so important in Indonesian daily life that they can be found everywhere. They are by the street-side, deep-fried in rice flour. They are baked to fill the bread together with cheese. The leaves are used to wrap steamed rice or fish, imparting an appetizing fragrance to the dish. Grandmothers will even rub the scars of their grandchildren’s chicken pox with the inside of the skin of pisang susu, to supposedly cure them.

There are around 30 varieties of bananas that flourish in Indonesia, but only half of them actively cultivated. They fall into two categories based on the way they are consumed – the “dessert bananas” that can be eaten raw, and the plantains, or “cooking bananas” that are steamed, boiled, baked, deep-fried, or grilled. Popular variants like Giant Cavendish, the petite pisang susu, pisang ambon, and pisang seribu are among the first group, while the extra-long pisang tanduk (25-35 centimeters), pisang asam, pisang kepok, and pisang udang need to be processed before consumption.