How many of us know about plantain? Probably most of us Filipinos don’t know about plantain. But quite ironically, this is the very staple food that some of us eat as a substitute to rice.
Yes, plantain is a type of banana that we use for cooking. To most Filipinos, we call the cooking type of banana as saba and indeed in Filipino lexicon, there’s no other term for the cooking banana but saba.
In Cebu, we have two types of plantain that we commonly grow in our farm and in our backyard. These are the sab-a and cardaba.
But how do they differ from each other? Growers and most rural folks can tell the one from the other. To city denizens however, typing is the least of their concerns if at all. But let me share my little knowledge about these two major types of plantain which are commonly grown in Cebu.
Sab-a have bigger stems and can grow as tall as five meters while cardaba are much slender and in some species, they can grow as tall as sab-a too. The leaves of sab-a are broader and thicker if compared to cardaba whose leaves are narrower and thinner.
Sab-a fruits are much larger and in each hand can contain 12 to 18 fingers and one bunch of sab-a can have as many as 12 hands. Cardaba on the other hand has smaller fruits but each hand can contain as many as 16 to 22 fingers in a bunch of up to 14 hands.
The fruits of both species almost taste the same, be it green or ripe. When cooked, a fully mature but unripe cardaba fruit is much denser and firmer and starchier compared to sab-a. Thus, ripe cardaba fruit is much sweeter than sab-a. When left to ripen more in the shelf their skin will turn black although the flesh can still be eaten. The flesh of overripe fruits from both species will become very sweet with a tinge of sourness though when eaten.
Sab-a is the most commercially grown plantain among the two and therefore has more commercial value than cardaba. Maybe because the sab-a is easy to grow and can thrive even in thickets and still fruit abundantly. It can survive even the worst drought when most crops die owing to their large and thick pseudostems which can hold water and moisture more efficiently than cardaba.
The only advantage of cardaba over sab-a is that its high-starch content which is an excellent source of carbohydrates much like the revered potato in the West.
For those who want to grow plantain in their backyard or venture into plantain farming business you may go to the nearest agriculturist in your area or the Department of Agriculture office to extract more information about plantain cultivation.
dr kayode afolabi said,
September 14, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
very important to go natural. it signifies the begining of healthful living. i will always be part of this. please keep me on your regular mail list. cheers
Jorge said,
September 17, 2007 @ 10:59 am
thanks for ur comments. u can comment more on other articles (at least three) before we can add you to our regular mailing list as our way of determining spammers. sorry for this but we need to do this as our precautionary measures.
best regards and hope to hear u again soon.
have a nice day!
Shannon said,
September 9, 2008 @ 9:59 pm
What is the best substitute for the saba banana, if you need quick access to them. Should I use plain bananas or plantains from my local grocery store?
Jorge said,
September 15, 2008 @ 11:55 am
Hi Shannon,
First of all, thanks for writing.
Now where are u from? Availability of these fruits depends on where u live. I mean, these plantains can only be grown in warm tropical climate. So tropical countries from across the world have abundant supply of it.
Well, plantain bananas are the cooking varieties.
In other countries, especially in temperate western countries, u can seldom find these in grocery stores or supermarkets.
now, if u don’t find saba banana in ur local grocery, u can substitute with bigger variety called cardaba. Cardaba is n’t as sweet as saba though when ripe.
Lavern said,
January 7, 2009 @ 6:46 am
Hi,
First, I would like to comment on what you wrote the Saba and Cardaba as plantains. There used to be a mis interpretation that plantains refers to the cooking varieties of bananas. That idea is no longer accepted by the scientific community. Plantain are specific groups having a genome of (AAB), that are usually eaten cooked. But not all cooking varieties are plantain. The most popular plantain variety in the country is actually tindok, which does not have a male bud (characteristic of horn plantains).
In the Philippines, we have more than 90 distinct types of banana (as we are among the center of diversity for bananas). I will try to post later, so please vist my site at: http://growbanana.blogspot.com
Lavern
STEPHEN said,
August 4, 2009 @ 2:23 pm
pls. I wont to go into Plantain farming,Ineed your advice and how to go about it
STEPHEN said,
August 4, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
I have about 8 hectcer s of land very close to lagoon area