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I can only speak about the little that I know of the banana situation in Costa Rica. Every year the production of bananas goes down. The price of bananas here goes up all the time. The only ones that seem to have stayed the same price are the little finger bananas that they don't export. I pay about $2 for 18 of them. And that price has been steady for about the last 2 years. I prefer them as they don't go mushy quite as fast and they are a lot sweeter.

for the longest time , bananas were 19 cents per banana. then jumped to 24 cents per apron 26 % increase at that time , bananas were 39 cents //lb ( w 10 c off ) at Market Basket this was a week or so ago now they are 29 cents @ TJ's , and 59 cents //lb ( again w 10 cents off ) at market basket Crop failure ? demise of United Fruit ( chiquita ) ?

Sweet potato, baked and then sauteed in butter with onion, ginger, garlic, cayenne, cumin, and garam masala. I am often dissatisfied with savory sweet potatoes but this was quite satisfying. We had a pre-baked sweet potato because Mrs. C had air fried one last night, and it was still there this morning . . .

Breakfast for Two! Had a leftover chicken breast from last night's dinner so I made Toasted Clubhouse Sandwiches with roasted russet potato wedges.

Grilled chicken caesar salad with tomatoes

I had some turkey breakfast sausage patties I wasn’t wild about and some bread from a bakery I am wild about so made a breakfast sandwich. @Katie Meadow I agree with you on NM! I only lived there for three years but I get homesick for it but don’t for the also beautiful state I grew up in. New Mexico is extraordinary. We’re lucky that a local company here brings in Hatch chiles and roasts them. Last year we bought a peck and processed them to freeze. I found I could freeze the chopped chiles in ice cube trays then pop them in a freezer bag. One cube is often all I need to add to whatever I’m making for two of us.

Any diff between this and sheppards pie?

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@Ann_T fabulous going right into the f0od p0rn folder

Last night's roast chicken dinner.

These are tacos filled with creamy poblano peppers, onions, and mushrooms. A hit with my wife, who is mostly vegetarian these days. Making your own tortillas is a real game changer. Masienda's masa harina is fantastic and produces tortillas more beautiful and flavorful than Maseca. You can get a fantastic Victoria brand cast iron tortilla press for like $25. I haven't started making flour tortillas yet, but you don't need a press for those. I ordered a small wooden rolling pin in anticipation. There are few things better in life than fresh flour tortillas. Or fresh corn tortillas. Fresh tortillas rock.

Perhaps the best resource I've found is Rick Bayless's "Taco Manual" series on YouTube. I just kind of watch them at random whenever there's a new one posted, but it's really upped my game. Here's the first video in the playlist:

I picked this up in a used book store a week or so ago for $4 Cdn. 'Cooking with Patrick Clark. a tribute to the man and his cuisine' After doing a bit of research I found that Clark died in 1998 at the age of 42 and the cookbook was put together by the late Charlie Trotter and other collaborators. The first half is composed of Clark's recipes and the second half of recipes submitted by other chefs (around 50) including Pepin, Keller, Trotter, Van Aiken, Samuelsson, Lagasse, Ducasse and Silverton among others. One of my best finds. I don't have any personal experience with or knowledge of the NY restaurant scene and its history so any comments welcome. Looking at you @weinoo and @KennethT.

A retro recipe that will be recognized by anyone who has lived in Quebec or have French Canadian roots. Pate Chinois. I added to the rather bland standard recipe by using a beef/pork/mushroom/onion base with a good gravy and topped it with roasted garlic, aged cheddar and chive mash. Served with a green salad.

I mostly use purchased flour tortillas for breakfast wraps and they are one of my favorite breakfasts. Another good use would be quesadillas. I cannot get good corn tortillas in my area as the packaged products available are pretty meh.

Mushroom, spinach, aged cheddar, chive and dill omelet with leftover mushroom couscous, tomato and a mix of grapefruit and orange.

Here are some dinners we’ve been having over the past few days. Below spaghetti bolognaise We had dinner one night at our son’s and his wife made this enchilada, she said it was a Jamie Oliver recipe with sweet potato and black beans in the filling. It has made me want to make my own enchiladas and I’ve been looking up recipes. Below an ordinary chicken schnitzel and 5 veg meal. The mashed sweet potato with butter was nice I made a frangipane tart with the soon to be finished for the season fresh figs

This morning I came across something in my local supermarket that I’ve never seen in any Chinese supermarket before. They were lived and labelled as, and looked like 波士顿龙虾 (bō shì dùn lóng xiā), which are Homarus americanus, Boston Lobster. How they ended up here I’ve no idea. The tank held around a dozen of them. Previously I’ve only been able to order them for delivery, usually 24 hours in advance being required. The Chinese name for lobster is 龙虾 (lóng xiā), which literally means ‘dragon shrimp’. Be careful, though. The extremely popular 小龙虾 (xiǎo lóng xiā), meaning “small lobster” are crayfish. Often restaurants that provide English on their menus omit the “small”. These real lobsters were on sale for ¥268 ($37 USD) per 500 grams (1.1 lbs). Unfortunately, they were in a dark corner of the store and my photos aren’t clear. So, here’s one I had delivered at Christmas from my delivery app. It was slightly more expensive.

Update on my NM chiles. The mysterious bag of peppers labeled Anaheim made it back to CA in excellent health. They don't look like CA anaheims, although I don't think I've bought any anaheims here for decades. The were meaty, dark green and flat like a poblano, but longer and less triangular. We roasted them on the grill, peeled them, etc. Generally they were mild but a couple of them had more heat. The flavor is nice. I froze them in small bags. I think the best benefits will be gained by mixing them with the frozen very hot Hatch chile. My plans for the next week include making a green chile stew: pork shoulder, potatoes, light chicken broth and chiles to taste. Very traditional. If only I had some fresh warm sopaipillas and some pueblo honey to go with. Note to @Shel_B: Our Airbnb was in Velarde, north of Santa Fe. The Ohkay Owingeh pueblo is just down the road. Our host gave us a jar of Ohkay raw honey from the pueblo called RZ's Bees. It was thick and delicious. That's local honey for you. .

Rajas de chile Poblano, mushroom, and chorizo tacos with tomatillo salsa and shallot relish

black-eyed peas over rice; diced green pepper&cucumber soaked from dry, simmered in chicken stock + diced smoke bacon

I thought I posted yesterdays dinner but I don't see it. It was ribs in the smoker. They turned out really salty. I was so upset I probably forgot. I dumped out the rib rub I had made a few months ago and started over from scratch. So i did another rack today and they turned really well. I have a few theories about what went wrong but they are just guesses. Whatever went wrong that one time, at least it was only one time.(fingers crossed) The recipes are all on my blog but the potato salad recipe calls for 5 pounds and I made it with one potato so even though I used all the same ingredients I estimated the proportions. The BBQ bean recipe came form Gates BBQ restaurant and used 110 ounces of canned baked beans. I mixed all the the additional ingredients in a separate bowl, poured them into a bottle and refrigerated it so I can add just the right amount no matter what size the can of beans I use and still have more in the refrigerator for next time.

Thanks everybody. Lots of suggested reading which I intend to do, I just haven't had time. I did make fish tacos last night. Pan-fried panko'd cod, with a pineapple salsa. Wow, was that good! Thanks, @blue_dolphin for the suggestion.

The only time I ever got sunburnt. I'm sure dehydration and salt depletion played a part in making those souvlaki and plastic bottles of water amongst the most beautiful things I've ever tasted!

@ElsieD, another source of excellent taco ideas would be to search the forums for posts by @C. sapidus that include the word taco and scroll through the list of posts. He's shared tons of them over the years from delicious looking tacos in the breakfast topic that might feature leftovers as well purpose-built tacos in the Dinner topic and else where that might be traditional Mexican or fusion cuisine!