After watching Crazy Beautiful You, there was a short scene of food on giant banana leaves being eaten with hands. As I learn about cultures, I had to know more about this practice and the history behind it. I learned that it is called Kamayan. I wanted to create my own Kamayan and so I did. In the time of Coronavirus, I made a hand-fed feast.
To prepare for a feast, the utensils will be your hands. The
plates-banana leaves that spread to cover the table or whatever flat surface being used. Spread across your leafy platter is typical Filipino
gastronomy: fried fish, rice, lumpia and so much more.
This feast is known as kamayan and originates in the country of The Philippines. The word kamayan is a Tagalog word meaning “by hand”
which refers to the way the in which you eat the meal. It started to fade when The Philippines was under colonial rule, but had started to make a resurgence.
Kamayan is also refered to as a boodle fight. The term stretches back to
the United States’ occupation of the Philippines (1898-1946). A boodle
fight consist of military officers or various ranking engaging in an eating
contest around a table.
Source
Shopping
You would think that shopping for banana leaves may seem like a difficult task, but it was. As a frequent shopper to the Asian market, I had often seen banana leaves in the frozen section. I wondered when will be the day that I could cook with them.
After obtaining the banana leaves, I ran into some frozen lumpia and decided to buy it as well. I could have cooked it myself, but I was making a feast, which requires several dishes.
The Feast
My research online let me to a few enticing meals. Here are the items that I made:
After thoughts
My favorite thing was the okra and tomato. It was my first time cooking with fresh okra and it was worth it.
I found the ribs to be too dry–my own cooking problems. But they tasted so delicious. In fact, they were my families favorite. There were even leftover for the next day and they were still delicious.
The rice was so-so. I added both the coconut and the turmeric. I don’t think I like that combination together.
And I’m not sure if fried plantains are authentic or not. I just had a few that were beyond ripe and they needed to be cooked.
The best part of the meal was the ending with the hands part. My five year old son prefers to eat with his hands anyways, so this excited him. Both of my children wanted more hand-eaten meals.