GOING BANANAS

The unofficial baked good of a pandemic, explained

- BARRY RODGERS

Looking back at the past one month, there have been different phases of quarantining. It all began with panic shopping for hand sanitisers, surgical masks and gloves. Phase two: There was the need to stay connected with family and friends via Zoom happy hours and hangouts. And then phase three: The banana bread craze. Are you even self-isolating if you haven’t made banana bread yet? Somehow, it’s taken pride of place as the unofficial baked good of Covid-19. In fact, research for this story threw up some interesting statistics: Searches for 'banana bread' started to surge on Google the week of March 22 – soon after the government-imposed lockdown began. Trends data on Pinterest shows a similar surge in user interest for banana bread recipes starting on March 24. And that's not all: Food tech company Chicory also reported, in a press release, that engagement with banana bread content exponentially increased across its recipe network during lockdown, with views of all banana bread recipes surpassing one million just in the week of March 29 through April 4. The bottom line: People really, really want banana bread.