March 14, 2022

Eat This Podcast: Yes, we have no plantains

Hello

Jessica Kehinde Ngo recently wrote an impassioned piece bemoaning the fact that “the plantain has long been eclipsed by its banana cousin”. That alarmed me a little, as did the question immediately afterwards: “Where can the curious go to learn about its fascinating transnational history?”

For Jessica, “[e]ach bite of plantain connects me to my roots, though I am many miles from my father’s homeland”.

For me, the inability of my Musa-specialist ex-colleagues usefully to distinguish plantains from bananas was at one time a very sore point.

Time to bring the cultural and the botanical together. Take a listen here. All the best

Jeremy