"My dad served a religious mission in Costa Rica/Panama - where they love them some bananas. Upon arriving there he was eating one and one of the natives looked at him very confused as he broke it by the stem as he had done his whole life and attempted to start to eat it. "Why did you break your handle? Now your handle is broken! How will you ever eat your banana like that!" It's one of his stories he likes to tell people. So I'm not sure if this is _really_ how monkeys do it, but you can chalk this one up as the preferred method of the people who really know their bananas - the central American natives. I never break my handle anymore." - Jamie Martin