Sunday, March 14, 2010

Banana Soup

We had a couple of bananas left from a bunch that I had purchased which, in our opinion, were reaching their "best if used by" date. Michael said, "Ooh, those look just right for some banana soup!"

I think this is an Amish thing.

Our friend Dean was born Amish and was the only one of his seven siblings not to join the Amish church as an adult. He and Michael are the only ones I know who talk about banana soup. That and tomato gravy. Michael himself was never Amish, but you don't have to go very far back on the family tree to get to the Dutch-speakers.

Tearing bread into chunks, Michael layered the bread and sliced bananas into bowls for himself and the kids, sprinkled each with sugar, and poured milk over all.

Is he kidding me? This is soup?

I posted on Facebook, asking if anyone had ever had this version of banana soup and I had Millers, Bontragers and (interestingly) Murdocks post that they had. Other variations seem to be peach soup and blueberry soup, which sound good. I loved the cold sweetened milk and bananas, but I thought the soggy bread was a bad idea. At any rate, we added this to the list of Things Daddy Can Cook If You Call That Cooking.

6 comments:

  1. "Things Daddy Can Cook If you.." WHAT A HOOT. I'm going to start a list like that in my household too!
    I HATE this soup - I've had it as a child and my dad talks fondly about it. I think it's a farmy thing around here because my dad doesn't have Amish background. It's just gross, in my opinion. (But I don't "slop up" desserts with milk either, to quote Rebecca!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. My VA Grandaddy, no Amish there, talked fondly of bread slopped up with milk and fruit. Lord. Now if that were a slice of yellow cake under there......

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm only one generation removed from the Amish. Yes, it's an Amish thing with my family too. And disgusting. Glad to know it wasn't just us, and that a google search of "amish banana soup" pulled up this blog entry lol :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. we are going to visit some Amish friends this weekend. she told us she was making banana soup, among other lunch fare. can't wait to try it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi, I come from the England and I had this soup as a child. Only we didn't call it soup we called it pobs. When we had no bananas we just had bread and milk with sugar and white pepper. In winter we heated it up. In summer we had it cold. Pobs was a favourite comfort food if you had a sore throat.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We often have bread and milk (or half and half). We sweetened it with sugar. It is best made with homemade bread and is very good. Our pioneer ancestors ate this for a quick and thrifty meal. Sometimes it was all they could have.




    ReplyDelete

I write my posts imagining that I am already in the middle of a conversation with you. I hope you will comment and be a part of the conversation.