Banana Flowers

Banana flowers... each flower will become a banana, with any luck.
Notice the ant in the middle. These are ice cream banana flowers.  

My attempt at making banana flower salad.
First step, peeling the outer flower petals.
Warning: do not get banana sap on your clothes. 
The brown stains are impossible to get out.

Peeling to get to the soft white petals in the center. 

Cutting into the center. 

Surprisingly stringy sap even in the center of the banana flower

Do people really eat this stuff? I tried to, after soaking the cut up banana flowers in lemon water. It was still kind of stringy from the sap, and astringent. My mouth puckered up. I gave up on the actual recipe and added it to a regular salad. Another time, I sauteed the banana flowers to add to another dish.  I think Thai banana flowers are different from the common banana flower varieties we have on Maui. I wasn't crazy about it, but I've heard people rave about banana flower salad.