Miles Davis is a legend of jazz improvisation. That genius was once demonstrated at a live show in Stuttgart Germany. At the beginning of the show, Herbie Hancock blanked out on the keys and played a note that clearly way off. Miles was visibly bothered, but just for a moment. What followed amazed those present. He played a note on his trumpet which actually made the mistake that Herbie Hancock’s mistake sound right.
This weekend, I turned a mistake that resulted in having so many bananas into some artistic cooking that actually made the mistake become an unforgettable flavor and recipe.
Here is one simple and yet most elegant gourmet breakfast. It consists of a disc-shaped section of white sweet potato (known as Japanese bonito, locally) and a disc-shaped section of beet root. That is where the simplicity ends. The sauce is my version of pure sweet bananas "honey”, with a bunch of spices in it. It initially looked just like pure honey, and only formed into a jelly after refrigeration. The garnish is lemon balm and dandelion flower, from the backyard.
Last year I made a tea I named the Tea of Repentance. It was sumptuous enough to warrant an essay to memorize and accompany it. This spring, I have created a mock vegan honey from bananas. I am still adjusting the ingredients to standardize it for a collection of recipes and curriculum. Rubbing this honey on roasted sweet potatoes, or using it to make rice, are two of the ways I used it.
My indigenous holiday over the weekend was that of celebrating real food and was memorable enough. I had many questions in my mind at a time when many were celebrating Easter around the world. My mind however was preoccupied with earthly matters. Bananas was earthly as I could get this weekend.
Besides referring to the bananas we eat, the other popular phrase with bananas is the clothing brand known as Banana Republic. Together with the word Bikini, Banana Republic makes mockery of the injustices of America against other indigenous people and countries.
Bananas are cheap in the U.S because countries like Guatemala dispossessed indigenous people of their land, so that the Americans United Fruit, later changed into Chiquita, can force the locals into low wage workers for the corporation. That's how we can afford to eat blood food and still be mentally shielded enough to view ourselves as innocent and even blessed.
Bikini Island wasn't as lucky even though they were a small island without banana-growing capacity, or rare minerals. Being amongst the Marshall Islands, however, was just far enough from America to be useful as a testing ground for 23 nuclear weapons between 1946 and 1958. The pristine Island was therefore contaminated with the toxic bombs which were detonated there, forcing the evacuation of the remaining residents who survived.
The two injustices in both South America and Marshall Islands would be marked by two ubiquitous fashion brands: Bikini and Banana Republic. One for your scantily inner wear and the other, outer wear.
I used the bananas to make a nourishing meal, that hopefully allows me to turn the mistake of fiat food into a potent weapon in the war for food justice. Real justice cannot be something that we wear and remove like fashionable clothes. It has to emanate from inside.
I hope you don't ask me " So what?", as my answer can only be tasted or turned into a tune, which, unfortunately, I can't do. That is why I borrowed one from Miles Davis. The answer is simple: we all have to be indigenously just.
Is your level of Justice and Food Literacy as scant as a Bikini? Now you know why our food system is scanty dressed with justice but heavy with pollution. Like Miles, consider being a savior by making the old errors right. In other words crucify your fiat food appetite and, like Miles, right our past and, by extension, our future. In so doing, real food will be resurrected.