I used to open them from the hard stem bit which was not always successful, but it turns out that if you pinch them at the other end, they open up much easier:
You can also grab it with both hands and just break the whole banana in half with a quick pop. The line will be clean. Hand one half to your date as if nothing happened.
When in Poland, I learned of one urban legend there which was that your head to remove the end of the banana because there are some small livings (?) there (I think they called them "lamblia").
