Lots to answer. Tarev, those small bananas are called 'manzanas' here as well, and they do have a slightly apple flavor. There are other small bananas sold here, I don't know all the different names though. Generally I refer to them as Manzanas as well and they know what I mean. The small red ones are the sweetest, the really tiny yellow ones have denser seeds and are really sweet but so small that they are almost not worth it.
Cheryl, thank you for that recipe. I am going to make it when this bunch is ripe. I love banana pudding, my mother used to make it and I never got the recipe.
Hetty, it is convenient to have everything show up at the door. There are still milkmen here, he has a white with black cow spots motor tricycle and he plays a recording of a cow mooing as he drives around the neighborhoods. I now prefer the boxed milk so I rarely get anything from him although the yogurt is pretty good. Of course, we can also order whatever we want from the supermarket online and they will deliver. I kind of like going to the super so I rarely do it but it is convenient and a kind of cross between the old fashioned service society that this is and the new internet one. If I am home all day I can spend a lot of it just answering the door and seeing what someone has to sell. Or, I could bring a chair to the sidewalk at dusk and sit and talk to the neighborhood ladies and they will tell me what is new or different that is being offered.
The one I really like is the laundry guy who picks up stuff that I want ironed and delivers it back a few days later. Although I have 2 different ladies who clean for me on different days, neither of them wants to iron. I love ironed sheets so when I found this guy I started giving him the sheets along with the other ironing, it's really cheap and it is such a luxury. I am really spoiled from living here. It has been almost 9 years that I haven't pumped my own gas, cleaned my windshield, bagged my own groceries or loaded them into my car and a million other small tasks that I've forgotten. I am afraid I'd be more than a little helpless and out of my element if I ever returned to the north.
