Could this be the world's biggest banana? At around 14 inches, it's
gotta be a contender.
I found these beauties hanging from the cart of a vendor in
Chanthaburi, Thailand. The Thais call them "Kluay," like "Glueayyy". A
few people I've talked to think they're called rhino bananas or rhino
horn plantains in English.
The vendor pretty much just likes to fry them, but I convinced her to
sell me a few. The price was 15 bhat per banana, or about $0.50 US.
Usually I can buy an entire hand of 3-5 inches bananas for 10-15 bhat,
or pay the same price for two or three hands of overripe (Read:
perfect) bananas. Each of these ranged in size between 12 and 14.5
inches.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting much in the taste department. I've had
far too many interesting-looking bananas that turned out to be similar
to the generic Cavendish you find in every supermarket in the US, but I
was so wrong.
These things have the consistency of cookie dough and are super sweet.
I was pretty impressed with the taste, and I'd definitely pay to get
them again. Below I've posted a video of my reaction when I first
tasted them.