Comments on: “Morado” Bananas

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 07:12:01 +0000

thank you, i am definitely learning more about fruits and vegetable indigenous to the philippine countryside. have you tried posting or adding some of your fruit/vegetable finds to wikipedia? it would be fun to see you do the wiki thing. you’ve got some very interesting finds from your trips. are you aware of any local lab or agricultural agency banking any seeds from these plants? it would be great to learn more about it. thanks, again.

By: Marketman

Marketman — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:55:16 +0000

Sam, I think these particular morados, the chicos and grandes are meant to be eating (sans cooking) bananas. They have a pretty soft ripe consistency, so my guess is that they would be pretty limp and soft when stewed or fried. However, the larger red bananas in the U.S. and European markets are more often a variety of plantain, in which case they hold up better to frying or stewing. Our cook says this variety is never cooked where they come from in Cebu…

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:46:37 +0000

just curious, i’ve seen these red bananas, never tried them ripe. they’re pretty to look at, and i wonder if they can actually stand stewing in sumple brown sugar syrup? any ideas, mr.mm? when you had your stash, did you eat them fresh or tried cooking with a few?

By: wil-b cariaga

wil-b cariaga — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:28:19 +0000

On my trip to Sri Lanka I often see red bananas on roadside vendors and in markets, they say it is common there, I only saw this bananas once in philippines, looked exotic, but it tastes good. . . nice to have a fruit basket with diff kinds of bananas in it. . . .

By: Marketman

Marketman — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 07:01:02 +0000

You will be interested to know that buto, as described by the greener of you, and which I did not know the meaning until readers commented on this, has a very clear linguistic provenance it seems… “butoh” or “butuh” in Malay refers to the same thing… and I suspect the Malay word made its way to Cebu and thereabouts at some point several hundred years ago…

By: bedazzle

bedazzle — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 04:07:47 +0000

i’ve seen and tasted the morado grande because one time an officemate of mine brought some from laguna. they were huge! we had a good laugh while eating the bananas, although i didn’t particularly like it. as connie says talking about bananas usually leads to the gutter. oh, by the way, in ilocano, the male sex organ is also called buto (with accent on the last syllable).

By: brenda

brenda — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 02:28:47 +0000

I think i’ve seen these kind before, just cant remember if its in Bicol or Negros but I havent really tried it. What I do remember in Bicol is that there is this kind of banana that we call “butuan”, its kinda big with lots of seeds. I dont particularly like it as well because you have to spit the seeds every now and then but its really sweet.

By: connie

connie — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 02:12:20 +0000

“Cumin, take note that the word â€œbutoâ€ is accented in the end, meaning not buto as seed but referring to the sex organ”

*guffaw* Yes, in Pampanga that’s what they call the male sex organ, so yeah, I do know how putting the emphasis on the right syllable (or wrong syllable for that matter) gives the word a whole new meaning.
I never particulary like these bananas, I preferred the lacatan and latundan.
As for any talk of bananas leading to the gutter, I think some if not most of us just can’t help it especially when talking about something so phallic in shape. These do remind me of a talk that went so deep down in the gutter with some colleagues, of all group of people, that started about stinkhorm mushrooms. I think up to now I’m still covered in gutter grease. LOL.

By: edel

edel — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:49:21 +0000

i agree with tulip. morado bananas are abundant in quezon province. there’s also a big long banana (12-15 inches) that’s yummy cooked in water and sugar =) i love senoritas also.

By: Maria Clara

Maria Clara — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:52:12 +0000

I have seen them before. Never have had a chance to taste them.