Bananas and Cream
When I was a very little girl, I loved to eat a bowl of sliced bananas, sprinkled with a teaspoonful of sugar and drenched in fresh cream, straight from the separator. Bananas were cheap, and cream was plentiful, so it's no wonder I learned to love my bananas and cream.
Years later, bananas are still inexpensive, still used as a loss leader in every grocery store in the USA. Perhaps you don't know what a "loss leader" is, and I certainly don't know why I remember such a trivial bit of vocabulary, but a loss leader is a product sold, at a loss, to attract customers. Store managers figured out, long ago, that people who go to a particular store to buy cheap bananas are very likely to buy other, more expensive groceries while they are at the store.
It's been a long time since I enjoyed a simple bowl of sliced bananas and cream. The last time, after we left the farm, Mom poured a little half-and-half, a commercially produced mixture of milk and cream, from the one-pint carton onto my bowl of bananas.
But I still eat bananas and another kind of cream--ice cream-- on a regular basis. In my opinion, any kind of ice cream is made better with chocolate syrup (or hot fudge!) and a sliced banana on top, and sometimes sliced strawberries or fresh peaches, too, when they are in season.
That's another thing about bananas: they never go out of season. Bananas are shipped to the US year-round, from Central and South America, and are sold for the reasonable price of 55 cents a pound, give or take a few cents. Bananas would be a bargain at twice the price! What other fruit can you buy, week after week, for substantially less than a dollar a pound?
I often eat a whole banana, sans cream, for breakfast. I love to eat a generous slice of banana cream pie, piled high with a mountain of lightly browned meringue. Dairy Queen's Banana Split Blizzards are the best! But I save my dish of ice cream and bananas for the end of the day, when I'm winding down before bed. I know, I know, that's too many calories for evening consumption, but I don't eat it every day, or even every week.
When we first moved to Norfolk, Dad took a job at Nash Finch, unloading truckloads of produce and other grocery items. One summer day, he brought home a surprise, straight off a load of bananas. It was the biggest yellow snail we had ever seen. Somehow, it seemed fitting that a yellow snail should like to eat yellow bananas. I can't help but wonder, though--would any self-respecting snail ever stoop to eat his bananas with a little fresh cream?
Years later, bananas are still inexpensive, still used as a loss leader in every grocery store in the USA. Perhaps you don't know what a "loss leader" is, and I certainly don't know why I remember such a trivial bit of vocabulary, but a loss leader is a product sold, at a loss, to attract customers. Store managers figured out, long ago, that people who go to a particular store to buy cheap bananas are very likely to buy other, more expensive groceries while they are at the store.
It's been a long time since I enjoyed a simple bowl of sliced bananas and cream. The last time, after we left the farm, Mom poured a little half-and-half, a commercially produced mixture of milk and cream, from the one-pint carton onto my bowl of bananas.
But I still eat bananas and another kind of cream--ice cream-- on a regular basis. In my opinion, any kind of ice cream is made better with chocolate syrup (or hot fudge!) and a sliced banana on top, and sometimes sliced strawberries or fresh peaches, too, when they are in season.
That's another thing about bananas: they never go out of season. Bananas are shipped to the US year-round, from Central and South America, and are sold for the reasonable price of 55 cents a pound, give or take a few cents. Bananas would be a bargain at twice the price! What other fruit can you buy, week after week, for substantially less than a dollar a pound?
I often eat a whole banana, sans cream, for breakfast. I love to eat a generous slice of banana cream pie, piled high with a mountain of lightly browned meringue. Dairy Queen's Banana Split Blizzards are the best! But I save my dish of ice cream and bananas for the end of the day, when I'm winding down before bed. I know, I know, that's too many calories for evening consumption, but I don't eat it every day, or even every week.
When we first moved to Norfolk, Dad took a job at Nash Finch, unloading truckloads of produce and other grocery items. One summer day, he brought home a surprise, straight off a load of bananas. It was the biggest yellow snail we had ever seen. Somehow, it seemed fitting that a yellow snail should like to eat yellow bananas. I can't help but wonder, though--would any self-respecting snail ever stoop to eat his bananas with a little fresh cream?
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