Why did she put a banana on my curry?

[VanilIaSugarr]

Just that.

Growing up, homemade curry was a rarity, but whenever my DM made a curry she always chopped a banana on top.

Was this really a thing in the 70 and 80s? I’m making curry tonight and can’t imagine adding a banana.

My uncle puts a hard boiled egg on top of a chilli! Is that a thing!?
Also banana on curry sounds wrong to me but then I don't like banana so maybe that's why!

My mum and dad always did this too.

Yep - 70s childhood here, and curry at home always came with little dishes of sliced banana, sultanas, salted peanuts, and maybe finely chopped tomato and cucumber, along with mango chutney of course. And it wasn't just us - I remember my parents going to 'curry parties' and having the same...

Bananas were often the closest you could get to plantain in the UK in the 80s and early 90s. Plantain did often feature in African /Caribbean recipes. Slicing raw banana over the top of the curry is slightly different, admittedly, but only one step removed.

My mil (who is very advanced in years now) does this. When I first visited dh's parents in the early 80s she'd made a curry. In the middle of the table was a dish filled with sliced bananas, dried fruit, pineapple chunks and coconut. Silly me thought "How odd to have dessert all ready in the middle of the table". And what a funny dessert to boot!

Then they all started shovelling it on top of their curries (his brothers and sisters were there) and I was encouraged to do the same.
Have to admit, I was completely flummoxed and thought they might all be playing a joke on me. But no. That was how she'd always done it.
I took enough of the fruit salad so as not to appear rude. . . but. .in my opinion it spoiled the curry and added nothing.

Having been married to dh now for 30+ years, I have cooked hundreds of curries and never provided a central fruit bowl. I've had no complaints. I 'have' asked him if he wants all the paraphernalia but he says he's not bothered. Still dutifully eats it at his mum's house though. I don't any more. I've just developed an altar ego of being a 'fussy eater'. I won't eat junket, nor black pudding or tripe. I won't eat cockles or mussels. I won't eat chicken liver or beef that bleeds on your plate. Or lamb that bleeds on your plate. I won't chow down on pigs trotters for breakfast.
I'm an absolute nightmare to cook for. Apparently.

I have never been so glad to be allergic to bananas!

🤢

In the 90s my ex boyfriend’s family would serve curry with loads of sides. Can’t remember all of them but two of the sides were sliced bananas and cold baked beans!

We always have sliced banana on top of our curry and totally agree it has to be slightly underripe. Love it. Also love pineapple on my pizza. We are all different. I find coffee incredibly bitter but I don't criticise people who enjoy it!!

My GM would use apples and sultanas in curry and it was always delicious, but I never encountered a banana.

Loads of indian restaurants do a Kashmiri curry and they usually have banana or lychee (yuk I hate lychees). Also Malayan usually has banana or pineapple.

Before I was vegetarian (almost 40 years ago) I used to have a chicken and banana curry in restaurants. Quite a few did it and, again, I always asked for extra banana

If you get an underripe banana, cut it into chunks and fry it, it's a delicious side to a curry. It's sweet like mango chutney.

I believe it's a throw back to 'English curry' served during British rule in India. This is what my grandmother told me back in the 1970's.

Thinking about it, Coronation Chicken en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_chicken contains sultanas and apricot and was a Raj/commonwealth inspired recipe.

I like a fruity curry but my childhood ones were the apple and raisins (or were they sultanas or currents, probably whatever we had in the cupboard!) but I don't recall banana. Seems I've missed out!

My Mum used to make a vegetarian curry with celery and bananas in the 1980s and we would eat it with yogurt. I wish I had the recipe now because I loved it as a child.

I had forgotten how much I used to enjoy curry with banana on top! I think my family will think I have gone crazy if I start that tradition again!

Some great stories on here! I didn’t see the other thread, sorry!

We didn’t have banana but did have chopped apple, sultanas and desiccated coconut sprinkled on 😊

My mother lived in Malaysia and my father spent his youth in India and she used to make a chicken curry with sliced banana, onions, fresh coconut to add on top. The curry did have currants in it too. My job was to fry the poppadoms. So no idea if the recipe was authentic or something from the 70s but it was really yummy.

Any kind of fruit on savoury food is an abomination.
It was definitely a thing in the 1950's.

Those little dishes were known as 'boys' so ten boy curry would have ten of those glorious delights (or sambals), five boy would have five etc

Yes. I spent my youth in Malaya and my father and his family spent much of their life in India. I think sambals (Malay/Indonesian word) are common in SE Asia especially with indigenous fruity curries.

I associate them also with British Colonial type curries, as in the British Army 'Curry Lunches' which were a regular part of Army life. Sambals were de rigueur and would include salted peanuts, sliced banana, sultanas, dessicated coconut, mandarin segments and mango chutney, at the very least.

My local Indian has a few korma style curries that have bananas in them! I’ve never tried them but think it would be ok. I’ve also seen a few with other fruit like mangos. My mum used to serve one type of (quite spicy) curry with a big bowl of pineapple on the table, was nice!

Getting a curry takeway my fave is the banana one !

Madhar Jaffrey in the 1980s did a banana curry with a side dish made out of the skin.........I remember it being very nice!

@madcatladyforever

Any kind of fruit on savoury food is an abomination. It was definitely a thing in the 1950's.

I take it you're not a fan of sweet and sour then? Because that's the basis for it.