Thailand's bananas come in all shapes, sizes and colors: there are spherical, ping-pong ball-sized kluay khai tao (turtle's egg bananas); red-orange colored naga bananas; recurved, delectably perfumed kluay lob mue naang (dancer's fingernail bananas), and many more exotics. But four or five familiar varieties are common to all fruit markets. The kluay hawm, or "fragrant banana" is the one familiar to shoppers in western supermarkets. Smaller, firmer, and sweeter are the dark-yellow kluay khai, or "egg bananas". Protein-rich kluay nam waa are said to be a fail-proof sex-enhancer when steeped in honey, and kluay hak mook are at their best when split open and grilled to softness over a charcoal fire.

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