Bananas

This delicious starchy treat is synonymous with most tropical locales, and is praised here in Hawaii for both its flavor and nutritional value. Going along with the initial claim, the banana fruits are commonly utilized as the main starch in many tropical diets. Even though we haven't directly experienced it, cooking the banana flower (pictured here in all its purple glory) is not unusual.

Many types of bananas thrive here in Hawaii, cooking varieties and sweet varieties. On the mainland we are mostly familiar with a sweet variety called Cavendish bananas. These have been artificially preserved and ripened due to their inability to last a long voyage to the supermarket shelf; as an initial skeptic of the greatness of bananas, I guarantee: they taste different right off the tree. Also we have been exposed to red bananas and apple bananas, the two types we have had the most exposure to. Both have a sweeter taste than the Cavendish.

I must clarify; the banana does not grow on a tree. When harvesting bananas one actually chops down the entire stalk of the plant. Called a pseudostem, the stalk of a banana plant is actually the leaves of the plant tightly rolled together and grows successively as an older stalk is harvested.

The banana is an amazing and diverse plant. For example, you vegans out there can substitute bananas for eggs while baking. The two have the same coagulating properties. Crazy... Yes, but it can be done.