Banana Milk

"Get some of this energizer drink too!", said the lady at a breakfast buffet while I was in Beijing. I had just gotten some milk, and now she hoped for me to get the energizer drink. What was it anyway? I decided to get some too. After all, if I didn't get it, the rest would go bye bye into the drain; the buffet was almost over, and that meant the leftover food (well most of it) would have to get discarded.

Going back to my table at the buffet, I started to drink the beverage. It was very familiar- a blend of bananas and milk (and maybe some other added ingredients too). And that is when I noticed this "energizer drink" was something I had made at home for many years. This so called "energizer drink", or banana milk, was a great way to use up ultra ripe bananas which were on the point that they could have been already thrown away (in a school cafeteria, that equals when black dots form on the banana). At this point, the banana was very sweet, which was good as it would make the final product sweet and flavorful.

How can a simple blend of banana, milk, and sometimes vanilla be so popular? I really don't know. When I recently searched about it, there was a multitude of pages of results. Some showed banana milk as a mass produced product available in grocery stores. Some showed it handmade, where the person would mash the banana by themselves.

Personally, I like it freshly blended with milk and banana. Why freshly blended? Well, the banana milk seems to have a chemical reaction as time goes on. Look at the product after a day, and the result is something you can not drink anymore. Plus, at the freshly blended point, it is ultra creamy with lots of foam on top. In other words, that means delicious.

How to make it? Simple. See the recipe below:

Banana Milk

You'll need:
1 medium to large banana
2 cups of milk (which milkfat is your preference)

*if you have a small banana, make it one banana to 1 cup of milk*

Equipment: A blender

Directions:
1. Prep your blender ready for use.
2. Peel the banana, and separate it into chunks with your hands. This should be very easy to do as the banana is ripe. Or, if you don't like getting your hands dirty, you can use a knife too. Do this over the blender so that the chunks automatically get into the blender cup.
3. Add two cups of milk to the blender.
4. Blend for about 30 seconds. If you don't like a very creamy texture and would rather like a chunkier and thinner texture, blend it for about 5-10 seconds. If you like creamy and smooth textures though then blend it for 30 seconds.
5. Pour into a cup, and enjoy!

You can double the recipe if you want to for 4 people. If you find the final product to be too sweet to your liking, you can add more milk and blend again to make sure it is incorporated well, or just splash some in and serve!