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View Full Version : Help With A Few More Thai Banana Identifications


RusticBohemian
08-31-2011, 12:01 PM
Went to the market and took some shots of a few more common Thai banana types. And I'm hoping you can help me identify them.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=45460 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=45459&ppuser=10898)

First up, above (the ones that are hanging, not the ones on the table) we've got what the Thais seem to interchangeably call Kluay Hom or Hom Thong. Is this Gros Michel? Doesn't taste like Cavendish.

Next, below, we've got the banana that I can't stand to eat. I'd describe its taste as insipid. Actually, I think it's the one fruit I dislike. I'm talking about the middle row. The one on the left may be different. I think the Thais call the middle row ones Kluay Khai, but I'm not sure.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=45461 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=45460&ppuser=10898)

Finally, below, we've got a thicker type that turns black. Taste is fairy good, but nothing special. Don't know what they call it.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=45462 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=45461&ppuser=10898)


Any insights?

Thanks.

-Andrew

Gabe15
08-31-2011, 12:57 PM
The first ones are 'Gros Michel', as you thought.

The ones in the second photo on the left could be a Silk type, a common cultivar in the US and elsewhere is 'Manzano'. They are normally very well liked, but they need to be very ripe. If you are eating them at the ripeness shown in the photo, they are not very good and often nearly flavorless and astringent. They should be ripe to the point the skins are showing some black coloration and the fingers are falling off the hands. If it is 'Manzano', it might be known as 'Kluai Nam' there.

The second photo, middle row, look like they could be 'Kluai Khai', known commonly as 'Sucrier' or 'Nino'.

The last ones I'm not sure about, they look to be a type of ABB Bluggoe perhaps, but I have no idea of the cultivar. There is a THai Bluggoe called 'Kluai Som', but I don't know if that is the one in the photo or a different one.

RusticBohemian
08-31-2011, 07:39 PM
Thanks, Gabe.

I'm fairly certain the ones in the second photo are not Manzanos, simply because I've eaten those and experienced how they ripen and these ones don't ripen or taste that way.




The first ones are 'Gros Michel', as you thought.

The ones in the second photo on the left could be a Silk type, a common cultivar in the US and elsewhere is 'Manzano'. They are normally very well liked, but they need to be very ripe. If you are eating them at the ripeness shown in the photo, they are not very good and often nearly flavorless and astringent. They should be ripe to the point the skins are showing some black coloration and the fingers are falling off the hands. If it is 'Manzano', it might be known as 'Kluai Nam' there.

The second photo, middle row, look like they could be 'Kluai Khai', known commonly as 'Sucrier' or 'Nino'.

The last ones I'm not sure about, they look to be a type of ABB Bluggoe perhaps, but I have no idea of the cultivar. There is a THai Bluggoe called 'Kluai Som', but I don't know if that is the one in the photo or a different one.

Yug
08-31-2011, 08:40 PM
The one's that Gabe thought may be Manzano actually remind me of a photo I've seen of the Goldfinger types. But, I'm not an authority by any stretch of imagination.