When growing up, I often spent time with my mother's parents. They grew a beautiful garden in their backyard, and my grandmother would always bring into the house a small flower bud that smelled like ripe bananas. This banana-like aroma was so pleasant to my nose, I will never forget it. But what was this flower's name?
Whenever asked "what's your favorite flower?", my response tends to be "I don't know" until I start guessing flowers I usually find significantly pretty such as lilies, irises, and sunflowers. Despite my attempts to answer, this question always leads me back to my childhood memory of a banana-smelling flower. I eventually mention this as part of my answer, but no one seems to know what I'm talking about.
After years of responding "I don't know" or with possible guesses, I finally found the time to find out about this flower. I can now confidently say that my favorite flower is the Michelia figo (Banana Shrub).
I do not find myself having a green thumb, but being that I am "bananas for nostalgia" today, perhaps I will find myself cultivating this plant some time in the future.
Speaking of bananas, some friends of mine either really love or really dislike bananas.
I find that I personally LOVE eating bananas (I am referring to Cavendish bananas mostly as I have rarely eaten other kinds of bananas, if at all, from what I can remember). I can eat bananas whole on their own, cut into my bowl(s) of cereal, oatmeal, and/or yogurt/frozen yogurt, in baked goods (for example, banana bread and muffins), ... I am pretty sure my list can go on. To my friends that dislike bananas, I am so sorry that you cannot find yourselves able to enjoy this available luxury.
I mean... even Whole Foods Market is "going bananas"!
Not only are bananas a nutritious part of a balanced diet providing healthy benefits such as essential vitamins for nourishing the body, but bananas are so versatile, they can even help save our environment:
On an interesting food-for-thought note, the aroma of whole fruit bananas themselves is just mediocre to me. There is something sweeter in the aroma of the Banana Shrub that I feel is just beyond comparison. Perhaps my body's senses just simply feel that bananas are for eating and that the Banana Shrub is for luxurious aromatic enjoyment. But I cannot and will not complain :)
So... what's feeding your nostalgia today?
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