A-peeling? Japanese farmers invent edible banana skin
If you don’t like bananas then read no more – if you do then today is a day of joy
Scientists have invented a banana with an edible peel
This s–t is bananas!
A Japanese agricultural research company has developed a banana with an edible peel.
Called the Mongee — pronounced “mon-gay,” which is slang for “incredible” in Japanese — the freaky fruit is grown using an extreme freezing and thawing process. According to D&T Farm’s spokesman Tetsuya Tanaka, the idea began as a research “hobby” for technical development manager Setsuzo Tanaka and evolved from there.
First, scientists plant and grow banana trees in an environment kept at negative 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, the team thaws and replants them. The change in temperature encourages the plants to rapidly grow, and leaves the fruit with a peel that has a texture like “lettuce,” Tetsuya says. (Regular bananas are usually grown in temperatures around 80 degrees Fahrenheit.)
D&T Farm claims they have exceptional nutritional qualities. “Banana peel is an excellent ingredient,” the company’s English website reads, adding that the peels may contain vitamin B6, magnesium and tryptophan.
That’s all good and well, but what do they taste like?
According to D&T’s website, Mongees are sweeter than their traditional relatives, with nearly five more grams of sugar per fruit. Tetsuya adds that, unlike the exterior of ordinary bananas, Mongees’ peels don’t taste bitter.
Journalists at the Tokyo-based website RocketNews24 tested them out last month and found that they had a “very strong tropical flavor,” like a pineapple. In an article, they describe the skin as “very thin,” with “no strange texture” and “fairly easy to eat.”
For comparison’s sake, a RocketNews24 reporter later bit into a regular banana — skin and all — from Ecuador. Predictably, he found the peel inedible.
Unfortunately, Mongees probably won’t be cropping up at C-Town anytime soon: Production costs are so high for these bananas, only 10 of them go on sale each week in an Okayama prefecture department store in western Japan, averaging at a wallet-busting $5.75 apiece. “We are also considering export [to the US], but it is likely [to take a while,]” Tetsuya says.
via nypost
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