Plantain

In much of the southern hemisphere a good part of dinner is made up of cooking banana, not in a pudding or cake, but as a staple starch or main dish—whether crisply fried, baked tender, formed into spicy fritters or dumpling-like balls (kofta in India, fufu in Cuba), or simmered with a garlicky coconut-chili sauce. Northerners, just lately introduced to some of the members of the Musa family (which has been on earth longer than mere mortals), have begun to discover the banana’s diversity, thanks to the Latin American, Caribbean, and Asian restaurants that have sprung up throughout the country. It is the cooking banana that is most popular in the tropics, the hard green or black fruit that is often passed over by many in North American markets, who believe it to be too green, too bruised, too large, or too black. Elsewhere the situation is reversed: it is the sweet dessert banana that we know so well that is eaten in moderation.