Visited my mother over the weekend and found that she had these bananas that I remember my grandmother making for us. We call them gikono in kiMeru. I have never seen them anywhere else. She came with them from Chuka.
Before I knew what plantain was, this what I would have termed as plantain. However, as you can see gikono is different from plantain especially when it comes to the physical features. The gikono is short and thick compared to plantain which is generally longer, has a pointy tip and is not as thick.
Seeing that I have never seen this type of bananas anywhere else, I asked on my instagram stories if other people had seen them before and how they called them. I got a few answers from mkono wa tembo to bokoboko to bogobogo. However, after more research it seemed that those were names for plantain and not this specific type of bananas.
Decided to use google lens for this and the results implied this banana could be a type of wild banana known as burro/frog banana in Jamaica or macamboo (creole) bananas in St. Lucia. Fascinating.
My grandmother used to boil them for us and they tasted very sweet (sugary). For funsies, I chose to compare the gikono and plantain. I used two methods of preparation, steaming and pan frying.
For steaming, wash and cut off the ends of the gikono and plantain. Steam the plantain for 5 minutes and gikono for 9 minutes as it is thicker. You can opt to boil.
The results were delicious, the gikono tasted exactly as I remembered it, sweet. It can be enjoyed as is or with a sprinkling of salt. The taste of steamed plantain was a pleasant surprise, it was also sweet but not like the gikono.
For the pan fried option, I peeled and cut both bananas into 1/4 inch thick rounds and pan fried in some little oil.
The gikono was starchier in taste than the plantain and the sweetness didn’t come through. I found this to be quite interesting. The fried plantain was sweeter than the gikono, wonder if it’s because the sugars in the ripe plantain caramelised leading to the difference in taste.
In conclusion, the gikono is best steamed as the sweetness comes through beautifully, also I think I need to incorporate steamed plantain to my recipes. This was a fun experiment.
Do ley me know if there are some foods, you’d like to see me compare.
Also the important question, have you ever seen this type of banana before and if yes, what do you call it?