Better than flowers & chocolates...

On Saturday Jonathan was gone for a day-long class. But at about 1pm he sent me an email saying he had a surprise for me. Most wives might think flowers or chocolates - and he did bring me some pretty amazing chocolate-bling from Paris once - but I had a sneaking suspicion that wasn't it this time.

I'll give you a hint: my surprise was perfectly soft and blackened, with a wee bit of mold, and of the genus Musa.



Plantains!

During his lunch break, Jonathan walked to the Bombay Bollywood Bazaar and found they were having a sale on plantain bananas. Knowledgeably, he dug around for the darkest ones, leaving the firm, bright yellow ones behind.

Jonathan said the woman ringing up the plantains jokingly asked if he was going to make aloco (an West African dish) with them. His affirmative answer took her by surprise. Apparently she'd never heard of white people making aloco before. :)



Unlike bananas, plantains are either eaten green (as a starch) or black (as a sweet), but in either case must be cooked first. We like them fried up into aloco or baked with a spicy tomato and onion sauce, or baked with a pinch of brown sugar and cinnamon. Yum!