PERFECT A-PEEL: One can try. One can make a go of it. A person can line up their arguments and their ideas and their passionate pleas. But convincing a banana buff that their favorite fruit is not the best of bowl is an exercise best left unpursued, for any points you come up with, on the side of strawberries or peaches or cherries, will be immediately countered by the lifelong bananan. Tell them that an apple is easy to transport, anywhere, and the bananan will remind you that his favorite fruit arrives in its own sturdy suitcase, an outer layer that can be stripped away with ease. Explain the bananan how a nectarine is easy to find on the fruit shelf and the bananan may claim that a number of stone fruits seem similar, in size, roundness, and color, while bananas, with their consistent curve and longness and yellow-o-sity, are the eternal standouts in the produce section. In short? Bananafans have some excellent points on their side, a side that grows stronger thanks to the many excellent desserts and breakfasts and snacks that hail from the "a-peeling" fruit. (There's another plus for the banana; its peel has engendered countless promotions with "a-peel" in the title.) The Sacramento Banana Festival understands the bananan, through and through, and shall be serving up lots of chewy, creamy dishes based on the shaped-vaguely-like-a-luggage-handle fruit. Over the weekend of...
AUG. 8 AND 9... a bevy of cooks and vendors shall gather in William Land Park in the capital city for tunes and fest-y good times and these foods: banana coconut custard, banana and sausage kebabs, banofee Pavlova, banana cake, fried plantains, caramel banana bread pudding, banana fritters, banana s'mores, skirt steak banana tacos... Well, the list is as long as the banana itself (which, really, is pretty long, as far as snack foods go). Check out all the edibles here, Lovers o' the Peel, and see if you can line up a Sactown getaway over the second weekend of August, when your favorite fruit shall reign. But it reigns over the fruit bowl each and every day, doesn't it? Handy peelable jacket and ease-of-eat-a-bility and all.
