← All articles · Sri Lanka · 26 May 2019

Seven types of banana worth eating in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka grows 29 varieties of banana. Seeni, ambul, kolikuttu, red, anamalu and ash plantain: how to tell them apart and what each one is good for.

Sri Lanka grows 29 varieties of banana. Not 29 sizes of the same banana: genuinely different fruit, different colours, different uses, some of them nothing like the one in your supermarket. We got through seven of them.

Bunches of yellow and green bananas hanging in rows from a metal rack at a roadside market in Sri Lanka — A single stall, and not one of these is the same variety.

Seeni, the sugar banana

Small, firm and very sweet. They ripen to a brown-yellow that looks like they have gone over, and that is exactly when to eat them. Too sweet to eat several of on their own, excellent in a smoothie with something citrus, and the one to use for cakes and desserts.

A stall in Sri Lanka hung with bunches of small yellow seeni bananas and a bunch of red bananas, a woman reaching up to them — Seeni on the left, red bananas hanging in the middle.

Ambul, the sour banana

Almost the same size as seeni, which is why it took us a while to tell them apart, and then completely different in the mouth. Short and slender with pointed ends and a smooth pale yellow skin. Sour with a bit of sweetness behind it, which is why they turn up in desserts far less often.

Kolikuttu, the silk banana

Our favourite of the common ones. Slightly curved, plump, yellow going to brown-spotted as it ripens. The balance of sweet and sour is close to perfect and the skin is thin and satisfying to peel. Eat it as it is.

Bunches of ripe yellow bananas hanging from the beam of a thatched roadside stall in Sri Lanka — Sold on the stalk, cut off as you buy.

Rath kehel, the red banana

The best banana we have eaten anywhere. Red-skinned, going dark and mottled as it ripens, short and plump enough to look like it might split. The flesh is mustard yellow, very soft, creamy and sweet. They are less common and noticeably more expensive than the rest, and worth it. If you want more from them, bake or boil them.

Inga at a fruit market in Sri Lanka beside hanging bunches of red bananas and pineapples — Red bananas at the market. They stand out from three stalls away.

Anamalu, the green one

Also known as Gros Michel. Slender, curved, thick-skinned, and sold green, which is why we ignored them for months on the assumption they were unripe. They are not. Someone served them for dessert at a family gathering, we tried one out of politeness, and then ate one in porridge most mornings for the next half a year. Sweet, aromatic, soft, and easy to peel.

Inga standing beside a banana plant in Sri Lanka with a large green bunch growing at head height — Growing in the north. The bunch grows upward, not down.

Alu kesel, the ash plantain

A cooking variety rather than a snack. Small, slightly curved, dark green, thick-skinned, with a dusty bloom on the skin that gives it the name. Cooked into curry rather than eaten raw.

A man sorting bunches of yellow and green bananas on a table at a covered market stall in Sri Lanka — Sorting by variety, which is a job in a country with 29 of them.

How they get around

You will see more bananas in transit here than anywhere else: stacked on the back of a truck, roped to a moped, filling a whole tuk-tuk.

A small truck on a Sri Lankan road loaded above the cab height with green banana bunches — One load, heading somewhere. This is a normal amount of banana.

A vendor reading a newspaper at a roadside banana stall in Sri Lanka surrounded by hanging bunches — A quiet hour at the stall.

If you are eating your way round the island, the king coconut and the sugar apple are the other two to look out for, and there is more in everywhere we have been in Sri Lanka.