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Hua Moa is the first banana plant I ever purchased (prior 25 or so years I only grew plants passed on from friends)....from Going Bananas in 1993 based on Bill Lessard's wife's recommendation....if I could only grow one banana it would be Hua Moa. You have to let them get good and ripe before you harvest. Whenever I hear that someone does not like Hua Moa..they were picked too green and did not go through sufficient hydrolysis.
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I am going to try again. When I was eating it I ran across a few little spots in the banana that had what I called intense banana flavor. I tried them before not as rip and that flavor was nonexistent. So I was thinking this must be the flavor that comes out as it ripens. If I am right I will get a Hua Moa no question about it. One quick question, do they have to be picked at a certain time? We can only get them green, I have just been letting them sit till ripe(well what I thought was ripe).
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The local bananas are referred to as the East African Highland Bananas in the banana science world (the name of the subgroup) and matooke in Uganda (with the highest production), they are AAA. In Uganda where it is a major staple (up to ~5kg/person/week), they are most commonly peeled when green (with a knife), steamed or boiled, and then mashed and served with some kind of sauce.
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I had just read about that, I guess they usually serve it with a peanut sauce, so I have read anyway. It sounded great. I want to try it because I have read about a test of introduced bananas in that area to see if they could be used as a substitute for matook. I don't remember the varieties but they did not find the texture suitable. So I was thinking it must have a unique texture that is needed for the dish.
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I don't have too much experience with them, but with the 3 or so plantain varieties I have eaten raw, ripe, they were fine. Not really comparable to popular dessert bananas, but the flavor and texture are agreeable and they are easy to eat. But I would guess there are at least some varieties which are still astringent when ripe, but I haven't run across them yet (there at least 113 cultivars in Africa alone so I have a long way to go!).
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I was thinking that plantains had little or no amylase in the fruit and therefore less sweet when ripe, but I guess there probably isn't really a standard.
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If you make it to the Big Island of Hawaii, at the Hilo farmers market there is a Samoan lady who sells here home grown Fe'i, but that's the only place I have ever seen them sold in the US!
On the subject of Fe'i, the one thing I really like about the ones I've had ('Aiuri), is that even when they are ripe as can be and totally soft, they still cook well. They don't stay firm, they come out like mashed potatoes, but they don't taste or feel like a cooked ripe Cavendish like most other bananas do when cooked ripe, which are sweet and wet kinda. Then again, fe'i taste very unique among bananas, even when ripe, so it's hard to compare them to any others.
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Your killin me Gabe! I have to try one. Ever since I read about them in
Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, I wanted ot try one. He mentioned how they are not like any other banana, and how good they taste.