OmG! I used to go to a restaurant in Torrance, CA called Shezchuan (sp?). They used to serve that too, but their bananas were on fire before they dropped them in the ice water. Wow, thanks for the memory trip. Hope you can find a recipe.

This sounds similar to Toffee Apples. those are tasty. I'll have to try i=making it with banana sometime. I have recipes, but if you google "toffee apples" china there are a lot of recipes that come up which are essentially the same as the one I used. THere are even some toffee apple/banana ones out there.

Bananas ( Ripe and firm) 4
All purpose flour ¾ cup
Cornstarch ½ cup
Baking powder 1 tsp
Water ¾ cup
Sesame oil 1 tsp
Oil For deep frying

For Caramel

Sugar 1 cup
Sesame seeds (Optional) 2 tbsp
Water 4 tbsp

Ice cold water ( for quickly chilling the toffees.)

Cut bananas diagonally into thick slices. Sift the flours and baking powder together; prepare batter by adding water and sesame oil. Stir in the bananas and gently mix until coated. Heat oil in a pan; deep fry the pieces, taking care to add it one by one. Fry till golden brown, drain on paper towels. When all pieces are fried, make caramel. Mix sugar, water and sesame seeds in a pan. Heat gently, stirring occasionally till all the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and continue cooking without stirring, till the syrup becomes a light caramel (Heat for some more time if you desire a darker caramel, taking care not to char the sugar). Remove from the heat, and work very quickly through the rest of the steps. Drop one fritter at a time to the hot caramel, turn it over with a fork, remove immediately and plunge into the iced water, take it out, and drain on a wire rack while proceeding with the rest.

Recipe adapted from Ann Kay’s Desserts-500 Delicious Recipes.

We were at hawaiin place and they had deep friend bananas - they were rolled in panko and black sesame seeds. There we super crunchy on the outside, chewy dough in the middle, and mushy bananas in the center. Yum!