DH always takes the best banana

[Oysterbabe]

If in the fruit bowl there is a new bunch of bananas of optimum ripeness and one leftover from the last bunch, which is a day past it's best, he always takes a new one. The old banana is not unpleasant by any stretch, I'm talking about maybe a few tiny brown speckles on the skin, still reasonably firm. I think you should always take the most ripe banana to reduce the chance of waste. He will always take the nicest banana. I think it's because I grew up poor and he was wealthy. He would think nothing of throwing the banana he doesn't want in the bin, I can't stand the waste.

Yanbu - you should always eat the most ripe banana
Yabu - you should take the banana that appeals to you most

Please help me with this incredibly important issue.

(Don't come at me with banana bread. I already have loads of bananas in the freezer awaiting breading)

Some people care about banana ripeness, others don't.
in my house we have a DC who will only eat them with zero brown spots and one DC who doesn't care and a man who is a human dustbin and eats anything so the fussy DC gets the spotless ones and the unfussy folks get the others. Nobody is bothered by this.

My DS always does this and not just with bananas. He opens a new pack of ham when there are a couple of slices left in the old pack still well in date. He opens a new tub of pate when the other one might only have been opened the day before. He used to be always opening a new loaf of bread but now I freeze half a loaf so he can't. He is ND but it still drives me mad.

I’m with you, I’d eat up the riper one to avoid waste. My dp would also choose the best one - but he’s a bit like this with everything, will choose the biggest slice of cake, the pizza slice with most toppings on etc. I grew up in a poor household too, and was brought up being taught it was bad manners to take the best/last, and it’s kind of stuck.

Do you kick puppies too? What an extraordinary thing to say.

The idea of always eating a banana one day past its best while the others sit there at peak ripeness - but are then past their best when its their turn to be eaten sounds bananas to me.

But that is exactly what my mum would do - and still does. She'll eat the oldest stuff to reduce waste (actually because she is stingy with money) and never allow herself to eat the best stuff at its best. I actually think she enjoys the idea of saving the cost of (say) a banana more than the taste of eating the better bananas. That's folk for you!

I take the oldest banana as I like them when they are starting to turn brown. It annoys me no end that my local shop to work throws bananas away when they are just ripe rather than green.

Does he have to transport it? My DH works from home and is happy to eat the more fragile, slightly browner bananas whereas I have to get mine safely to work, so I take the sturdier, only-just-ripe ones.

ALWAYS eat the best banana.

Not wasting calories on a substandard one. Have the best.

(Don't come at me with banana bread. I already have loads of bananas in the freezer awaiting breading)

Just a thought, but maybe you buy too many bananas.

My mother used to give the best of everything to my father. I don't think he ever really noticed until the day I reached for the new Jam which he had just opened. Mum said. "No, use the old one up." Dad looked at her and said very distinctly "Why can't she have the new jam?"
"Because I don't want the old jam to go to waste."
"Then why did you let me open the new jar? If it's not good enough for me, it's not good enough for the kids."

So, really, you're perpetuating his behaviour by not doing anything about it.
Why don't you hide new bananas until there's no others in the bowl? Or don't buy so many and let them all do without until you're ready to do the next shop?

(Don't come at me with banana bread. I already have loads of bananas in the freezer awaiting breading)

Ahahaha this was me too until I cleared out the freezer and chucked them all. I needed to own the fact that I would never make the banana bread.

I am afraid, despite not liking waste, I am team DH. I can only eat a banana at xxx stage (and this is standard I think, tho the stage will vary). The speckled one you describe would be a big no-no for me. Yellow with a hint of green please. Luckily Dh likes riper ones.

Lol at the "ridiculous children" btw, I have them too.

I can't stand a banana after it's been here for 2-3 days

Buy bananas when they’re all gone then?

YABU people get to pick whatever banana they want. Not everyone likes the ripest one. If you can’t bare to throw an overripe one out that’s on you, it doesn’t mean someone should be forced to eat it. That’s very controlling.

Or people have preferences and somebody else in the houses are older bananas or they don't care about ripeness

If I wanted to take it to work with me then I'd take the firmer, less ripe one.

If I'm just making a smoothie or mashing it on toast then one with a couple of brown spots on is fine and I'd use that first.

Ha why not

Yabu, once a banana has spots it's too ripe for me to eat without boking 🤮
Chop and stick in freezer for making smoothies. Or you can eat it of you like gross spotty bananas 🤭

🤣🤣🤣 definitely the winner of this thread! 🏆

The most disappointing thing about this thread, is there are no banana bread recipes! (I have a whole bunch over ripe!)

I made banana pancakes this morning with the ones my kids rejected from last weeks bunch in favour of the new perfect ones. Easy. Delicious. Felt like supermum.

I should add that he is chopping the banana and eating it with yoghurt and raspberries. If I had made it for him and used the most ripe banana he never would have noticed.

The ripe banana is the best banana!

Alternatively you could move to South Korea, where a solution has been found:

https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/food/south-korean-supermarket-chain-has-great-idea-for-ensuring-a-weeks-supply-of-ripe

I much prefer a firm fresh banana to a mushy brown one.

if your bananas are ripening too much before you can eat them don’t put them in the fruit bowl with other types of fruit. Doing that makes them ripen too quickly.

YABU I hate bananas but if I absolutely had to eat one I'd choose the best looking one.