So which is really Pisang Emas?
Pisang Emas is often sought after as THE banana to eat raw here in Malaysia. The size and taste makes it a great choice to add to your breakfast, either on its own or sliced to add to your bowl of cereal or simply pan-roasted. Often, sellers claim that they are selling pisang Emas when it is actually pisang lemak manis to make it more marketable. Often, the buyer doesn’t know but is only aware that Pisang Emas is great so when they are told it is Pisang Emas, they buy it and then continue to think that what they bought is Pisang Emas when it is something else. They then tell others that is Pisang Emas and the misinformation continues. This really bugs me……hahahaha…..
So what is Pisang Emas. First, they are not big with the size being under 6cm in length. We don’t normally go to the market and bring a measuring tape or ruler, so how do we measure? A simple way is to compare it with you pinky finger – you can measure your pinky finger and just remember whether it is 6cm or less.
Next check the outer fruit. The fruit shouldn’t have any edges but be rounded with a smooth yellow skin.When you peel the banana, the skin is thin.
Once peeled, the fruit itself has a cream yellow exterior with a golden yellow centre. As you can see in the picture, when you slice the fruit, it is all yellow with the golden yellow centre a reflection of its name. No other local banana has this golden yellow centre. It has a very sweet taste and the sweetness tastes like honey.
So, next time you want to buy pisang emas, hope you get the real pisang emas and not pisang lemak manis, which is similar from the outside although it is longer, tastes sweet but not honey-like sweetness and doesn’t have the golden yellow centre.