The banana has been called the fruit that the man first met, it began to be enjoyed long before the story began.
The first banana probably grew in Malaysia and Thailand in Southeast Asia, and was spread by Chinese and Indian natives at a very early date. Alexander the Great and his soldiers who conquered parts of India in the 4th century BC were probably the first Europeans to eat the fruit.
In 1516, a priest brought the first of the banana plants to the New World, planting them on a Caribbean island. The banana grew so well there that it was soon planted in all the tropical regions of Central and South America. But bananas remained expensive in the United States until 1900, when traders found better ways to transport fresh bananas to the United States.
Today, bananas are the most popular fresh fruit. Americans eat more apples and oranges than bananas, but many of these apples and oranges are in the form of juices and prepared foods. Bananas are almost always eaten fresh. Each year, Americans enjoy about 12 billion bananas - about 8.6 kilos per person!
When the Puritan settlers settled in what is now the United States, and received a shipment of bananas for the first time, they boiled them with everything and the peel!
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