Wow, I just realised I haven’t posted any doodles here for almost a month. Here’s a 5-minute drawing of a banana to make up for it:

I listened to one of my favourite podcasts yesterday while cooking dinner: BBC Radio Four – The Food Programme. I listened to this episode about bananas that I highly recommend.

I learned that there are lots and lots of varieties of bananas in the world, but we often only see one variety in super markets, at least in the countries where bananas don’t grow naturally. And there was a whole story about how that one type of banana became the super banana that now dominates the market. But apparently some bananas are purple and some taste like icecream! The most common type of banana is in danger of extinction because of – I think – a type of fungus that attacks it and has spread to some parts of the world. I’m doing a bad job of summing up the podcast, so yeah, maybe just listen to it 🙂

I don’t actually eat bananas that often, mainly because I try to eat locally grown fruits and veggies as much as possible, because it’s often better for the environment. Also, my boyfriend REALLY hates bananas (and has since childhood) so he’s happier when we don’t have them in the apartment. I have foods that I’m disgusted by too, so no shade thrown, and since I can live without bananas, I don’t mind. However, I have a really good recipe for banana bread that I kind of crave now after drawing and writing about bananas so much.

When I think of bananas in a dessert context I always also think of a specific banana shaped pastry that I often got at the bakery when I went with my sister as a kid. It was some kind of sponge cake at the bottom with (maybe) swiss buttercream on top covered with yellow marcipan and with dark chocolate details at the ends. I can’t remember if it actually had a banana taste to it, though. But I loved it so much – I think I mainly liked cakes with fun shapes as a kid, and didn’t really care a lot about taste.

Here’s a speed video of the 5-minute banana drawing: