Banana and plantain

Hullo Kalyani! You have given the answer yourself.The one meant for cooking and eating as a vegetable is a plantain and the other one is a banana. "What is a Plantain? Plantains vs. Bananas? What is a Plantain? • The Difference between Plantains & Bananas • Nutritional Information What is a Plantain? Plantains are a member of the banana family. They are a starchy, low in sugar variety that is cooked before serving as it is unsuitable raw. It is used in many savory dishes somewhat like a potato would be used and is very popular in Western Africa and the Caribbean countries. It is usually fried or baked. Plantains are native to India and are grown most widely in tropical climates. Plantains are sometimes referred to as the pasta and potatoes of the Caribbean. Sold in the fresh produce section of the supermarket, they usually resemble green bananas but ripe plantains may be black in color. This vegetable-banana can be eaten and tastes different at every stage of development. The interior color of the fruit will remain creamy, yellowish or lightly pink. When the peel is green to yellow, the flavor of the flesh is bland and its texture is starchy. As the peel changes to brown or black, it has a sweeter flavor and more of a banana aroma, but still keeps a firm shape when cooked. The plantain averages about 65% moisture content and the banana averages about 83% moisture content. Since hydrolysis, the process by which starches are converted to sugars, acts fastest in fruit of higher moisture content it converts starches to sugars faster in bananas than it does in plantains. A banana is ready to eat when the skin is yellow whereas a plantain is not ready to eat "out of hand" until hydrolysis has progressed to the point where the skin is almost black. Plantains grow best in areas with constant warm temperatures and protection from strong winds. They have been grown in scattered locations throughout Florida since the 16th century. Because of the occasional freezes, Florida is considered a marginal area for plantain production. They are available year round in the supermarket. Plantains Starchy Used as a vegetable Longer than bananas Thicker skin Resemble green bananas, but may be green, yellow or black Bananas Starchy Used as a vegetable Longer than bananas Thicker skin Color is green when not fully ripe, yellow when ripe lINK-http://grabemsnacks.com/what-is-a-plantain.html We eat the vegetable and fruit too.

I don't know whether the picture is a banana tree or a plantain tree because I'm not familiar enough with either. Plantains never get sweet, though, from what I understand. I am very familiar with bananas and eat them often. The riper they are, the sweeter they are and they ripen at room temperature. We often buy them green and let them ripen so we can eat them at the state of ripeness that we like. I have never tried plantain at all.

I too am diabetic so cannot eat more of banana or mango. But you can eat one small banana every day and once in a while you can eat mango. I love them a lot and eat periodically. Even raw banana curry is very tasty and I bought raw banana yesterday. I will make avial with that today. Thanks for sharing your thoughts of my interest.

In the Philippines, it's all called banana, the one for cooking and making sweets is called "saba" and the rest are all "saging" or banana although there are many varieties like "lakatan", "latundnan" etc... and the smaller senorita. The one with lots of seeds is similar to "saba" but redder in color, it is found mostly in the mountains but are getting harder to find, actually they are wild bananas and people love to tease you "monkey" if you eat one cause that is what monkeys here eat in the jungles, although they are considered more nutritious and free from pesticides. Almost all Philippine bananas are good and nutritiousso that is something we are proud of. It's hard to identify banana simply on picture, a long time ago, I went mountain climbing on one of the Southern provinces and in one of the places there, I saw what I thought were banana trees but they were "abaca" trees (Manila hemp) or the ones they use for making rope, they look so similar except abaca i think does not bear fruits.

I do not eat banana because I have allergic reaction but I can eat plantain without problem. I'm not sure if it's because of the cooking process that helps but I believe so or maybe it simply does not contain what I am allergic to because it is different from banana.