Eddie’s Food Irritations: I Was Served a Banana with the Skin On, Cut into Slices
Adeline loves food, lots of it and often, both at home and out. Usually, things go well, but sometimes they don’t. In the series Eddie’s Food Irritations, she shares her bewilderment. This week, about pieces of unpeeled, sliced fruit.
In recent weeks, a recurring theme has emerged in my life. It concerns sliced fruit with the skin still on. For instance, at a beach club I ordered a cheerful banana juice, which was served with fruit on a skewer. I normally find that very fun, because I’m the type who then eats those pieces of fruit very awkwardly, sliding them off the skewer one by one. What can I say? I even eat the orange from my Aperol. You could call me a fruit lover.
But preferably peeled fruit, because otherwise, what am I supposed to do with it? I find it terribly complicated.
Squeeze it out or bite it off
With a banana juice, of course you can expect banana as decoration. The juice maker in question had even gone the extra mile, because there wasn’t just banana on my skewer but kiwi too. What a treat, I thought at first. Until I took a closer look at the situation. What did I discover? The banana on the juice was served with the skin on. As in: take a banana with its skin on, cut it into slices and thread it onto a skewer. Job done.
Well, the job was nowhere near done, because how are you supposed to eat something like that? Are you supposed to squeeze out the inside of the banana? Bite or gnaw off the skin and spit it out? Whatever tactic you use, the result is disgusting. The situation was the same with the kiwi; it still had its hairy jacket on too. But with that thing, you can at least debate how edible that tickly (for goodness’ sake), hairy skin is. The last time I ate a banana with the skin on was… Never!
Like a monkey peeling a banana
It’s a bit like saying: here’s that boiled egg sliced up, but just pretend the shell isn’t there. You wouldn’t do that either, would you? And one more thing about that hairy skin around the kiwi: it’s just plain mean. Your mouth starts itching just looking at the skin. And then there are those people who cheerfully insist that you can simply eat it. Get out of here.
At my holiday destination, I was consistently given sliced kiwi with the skin on. On day one, I still neatly cut the skin loose all the way around—you have absolutely nothing else to do, after all. On day two, I got more drastic and cut it into a square kiwi. When I found yet another kiwi with the skin on day three, I took a bite. I mean, if someone is so convinced that kiwi with the skin on is the way to go, it must be tasty. Surprise! Kiwi with the skin on tasted exactly as you’d expect kiwi with the skin on to taste: disgusting.
Monkey business
Or was that banana with the skin on purely for garnish? Because then the juice maker in question is an even bigger asshole/bitch than I already thought. Wasting a perfectly good piece of fruit by casually threading it onto a skewer for no reason. You don’t do that, do you?
PS: I don’t want to hear anyone say that you can simply eat the skin, because if a monkey peels a banana, surely we should do the same.
Also read:
- Eddie’s Food Irritations: those people who don’t do shared dining
- Eddie’s Food Irritations: that stuck-up waiter at the table
- Eddie’s Food Irritations: soggy teabags left lying around
