I can’t imagine ever referring to myself as ‘retired’.   After teaching French cooking for thirty-five years, a sensible woman might welcome the opportunity to literally throw in the towel.   Me?   I’ve down-sized and am continuing to teach in an apartment kitchen. My motto to ‘keep it simple’’ is no longer an option.

Before you think I’ve lost my mind, let me add: my new kitchen is in Paris.  We purchased a place in Montmartre that had what the French call a cuisine americaine: a ten-foot-long bar separated the kitchen and dining area.

Read more: DOWNSIZING IN PARIS

Del’s diner is easy to find on old Route 66 in the middle of Tucumcari, New Mexico.  Just look for the restaurant with the larger-than-life plaster steer on the roof.  And don’t expect it to be Zagat-rated.

George and I sat down for breakfast at Del’s on a cold February morning just two days drive from our point of departure in warm sunny Malibu   Our sentimental drive to Chicago on Route 66 included eating meals at original diners on the road.

My order of oatmeal arrived with milk and a skimpy pile of raisins in a paper cup.   Something was missing.  “Do you have a banana?” I ask. ‘I’ll check,” said the waitress.  She was back in a nanosecond.  “Sorry.” she reported, “We only carry fruit in season.”

We got it.  We had left 2005 (real time) and entered Del’s, time warp where it will always be1956, the year they opened.  Back then, bananas were an exotic fruit.  Today we eat more bananas than apples and oranges combined!  They are grown in tropical zones around the globe.

I recalled my banana-less breakfast at Del’s as I read in The New Yorker that the banana may again become a rarity.  A soil-borne fungus, with the unlikely name of Tropical Race Four, has wiped out banana farming in Asia, the Philippines and Australia.  Experts predict it will spread to Latin American, the source of all American banana imports.  Like some subterranean villain in a horror flick, the fungus is resistant to all the agrichemicals in our arsenal.  Yes, soon we may have no bananas.

If and when this collapse occurs, it won’t be the first time.  Banana farming has always depended on a monoculture.  The current top banana, the Cavendish, replaced the reportedly delectable Gros Michel. The latter was wiped out by Race One, a cousin of the current blight.

There are as many as a thousand banana varieties in the wild waiting to be discovered and domesticated.  Contestants must be sweet, tender, slow to ripen and be covered with a skin that resists bruising.   At the same time scientists are working to create a gene they can insert in the Cavendish, Gros Michel or any other tasty variety to make them resistant to both Race One and Tropical Race Four.  My advice: eat your bananas now, while they are plentiful, cheap and in season.

Links to two popular banana desserts from the archives of Chez Madelaine follow.  In addition, I offer a Banana and Bittersweet Chocolate Jam adapted from a recipe of Christine Ferber, the French queen of confiture.

The article I have referred to throughout this blog is from The New Yorker, January 10, 2011. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/10/110110fa_fact_peed

Bananas Foster http://www.chezm.com/welcome-to-recipes/47-desserts/399-bananas-foster

Spicy Baked Bananas: http://www.chezm.com/welcome-to-recipes/47-desserts/180-spicy-baked-bananas

BANANA AND DARK CHOCOLATE JAM

Ingredients for 2 cups:

2 medium bananas, perfectly ripe (1 1/4 cups sliced)

1/3 cup cool water

1 1/4 cups  sugar

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

3 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

Directions: