Wine Food Pairing Banana Rama ... !

Down here in Florida, wine food pairing has some tasty food choices that many of you "northern folks" don't get the opportunity to have. I don't know if that is good or bad, just different.

For instance, we have several banana trees in our back yard ... actually they grow almost like weeds down here. The great thing is that we have these really tasty baby bananas every now and then, but the bad thing is that one day you have no bananas and the next day you have 200 ripe ones ... LOL! So, to outfox the wiley banana, I have started to boil the green bananas and eat them like potatoes to make the stack last longer!

Some banana trivia:

Did you know that there are over 500 different types of bananas. That means if you ate a different kind of banana everyday, it would take almost a year and a half to eat every one.

Although generally regarded as a tree, this large tropical plant is really an herb. That means it does not have a woody trunk like a tree. The compacted, water-filled leaf stalk is composed of leaf sheaths that overlap each other and grow from an underground stem called a rhizome..

The banana plant can grow as high as 20 feet (or 6 meters) tall. That's as big as a 2 story house. They are the world's largest herb.

Bananas are not just green and yellow, some bananas are red.

OK, now that you are astounded with banana facts, I'll just tell you that they are pretty darn good. I clean them up good with soap, cut off the ends and then drop them in boiling water. Pierce them with a fork to check for doneness, like a potato. Take them out, peel and you can eat them like a mashed potato ... I smash them up, add olive oil and s & p and they are an island delight!

I served this the other night with some fresh snapper on the grill and it was just like traveling to the Caribbean! I paired all of this with a chilled savignon blanc from California and it was the perfect compliment to the meal. Light and refreshing for a warm summers eve.

Wine food pairing is just what you make it, so enjoy. CHEERS!