Koba and Calle 13

[asakiyume]

I've seen banana leaves on banana trees, so I know they're big, but somehow I was still amazed to thaw out a package of them and see how they take over a kitchen, like really large caterpillars or space snakes.





I used some of them to make koba, a Malagasy sweet:

in the pot, getting ready to be steamed


finished product


I've never had the real thing, so I don't know how well mine approximated it, but it *looked* right, and it tasted good.

... Eating food from faraway places is one way to bring them a little closer.

Music is another great way. This song, "Latinoamérica," by Calle 13, is powerful stuff (I'm on a Calle 13 kick right now), and the video is just incredibly beautiful, showing faces of people from all over Latin America. At the start, the radio announcer switches from Spanish to Quecha, and about two-thirds of the way through, the chorus gets sung in Portuguese. Powerful stuff.

"Calle 13 - Latinoamérica" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[sovay]

koba, a Malagasy sweet

I mean, that looks amazing.

rushthatspeaks and once made gadon tahu steamed in banana leaves; it was excellent, surprisingly fast, and banana leaves are in fact kitchen-eating.

[asakiyume]

I have leftover banana leaves! Maybe I should try gadon tahu.

[sovay]

Maybe I should try gadon tahu.

We used Andrea Nguyen's recipe and I recommend it! Also the entire book it comes from, if you do not have it already.

[asakiyume]

Oh yes!! I *did* try several recipes from this book, back when you blogged about it. They were very delicious!

Tonight, though, I think I'm going to do this, though I may have to do some substitutions for some of the special leaves and spices.

[sovay]

Tonight, though, I think I'm going to do this, though I may have to do some substitutions for some of the special leaves and spices.

That looks great!

[kore]

Oh, that song is great!

[asakiyume]

Isn't it? And I keep on turning up others by Calle 13 that I like, though this one is the one I like best. But another with a very singable chorus and very good for our times is "El Aguante", and a more lighthearted one, which shows possibly the best use of post-it notes ever, is "La Vuelta al Mundo"

[kore]

Aw, thank you so much! I live for music, and this is really cheering me up.

[asakiyume]

I'm really glad! When I find music I like, I really want to share it, and it's THE BEST when I find someone who likes it too.

[sonia]

Wow, what a beautiful video! "No puedes comprar el sol, no puedes comprar la lluvia!" I like how the movements continued from one image to the next.

I'm glad your sweets turned out, too.

[asakiyume]

The movements continuing from one image to the next was exactly what transfixed me, too--just wonderful. And that chorus is so beautiful, singable, and true.

[mrissa]

Good heavens those LEAVES.

[asakiyume]

SO BIG AND BEAUTIFUL! I want to wrap myself up in them, just like the koba. They're a wonderful reminder of warmth in a cold season.

[mallorys_camera]

Very impressed by your culinary experimentation! :-)

[asakiyume]

Thank you! I was quite pleased, I have to say.

And I have leftover banana leaves--so I'm going to try wrapping other foodstuffs in them.

[osprey_archer]

What's in the koba? What does it taste like?

It looks like it would be a great food for street festivals; it comes with it's own wrapping as part of the cooking process.

[asakiyume]

It's made with glutinous rice flour, bananas, ground green peanuts (green peanuts not obtainable, so I settled for blanched ones), brown sugar, and, in this recipe, vanilla:

Koba is a sweet made from ground peanuts, brown sugar and rice flour. Koba hawkers are common in many Asian countries, and it is a traditional food of Madagascar (where it is also known as kobandravina), especially in the highlands. In marketplaces and gas stations one may find vendors selling koba akondro, a sweet made by wrapping a batter of ground peanuts, mashed bananas, honey and corn flour in banana leaves and steaming or boiling the small cakes until the batter has set.

The pictures at wikipedia don't look so much like what I made, but other pictures look very much like it! (Cheating a little as that's the page whose recipe I used.)

And it's definitely a street food!

PS Ours tasted pretty banana-y, but if you had higher proportions of peanuts, it would probably be more peanut-y.

[osprey_archer]

Oh, thank you! If yours looks like the picture from the recipe you followed, that's the important thing, isn't it? That's the one you were trying to make - not the giant log of Koba For Everyone at the Festival.

[asakiyume]

Yeah, definitely! Though I confess that now I kind of want to try making a giant log, and with more peanuts.

[osprey_archer]

You could have a koba party! Everyone comes over and hacks off a slice.

[asakiyume]

I like this idea. I like generally your instinct toward parties.

[osprey_archer]

"Too much food" is pretty much the ur-reason for parties, isn't it?

[okrablossom]

Oh, thank you!

[asakiyume]

You're very welcome!

[amaebi]

Awesome!

[asakiyume]

:D

[cmcmck]

Yum! :o)

[asakiyume]

very!

[sartorias]

Wow, wow, wow. While the music unfortunately didn't do anything for me, it was a profound experience watching the video in silence--it was so beautifully put together, faces and movements segueing into each other, choreographed with such care. Amazing.

The banana leaves look interesting, though I'd be too chicken to eat them. I wonder what other uses they are put to.

[asakiyume]

Oh! You're not supposed to eat the leaves--in fact, they tell you expressly on the package not to--you're only meant to use them as a wrap for the thing you're cooking. That's what they're used for: a wrapping. And sometimes as pretty plates.

And I'm so glad you liked the images--I can't imagine who *wouldn't* love them. It was so well done, that segueing, and all the faces, expressions, just beautiful.

[sartorias]

Okay, that makes sense. I've read many a time "wrapped in banana leaves" but never that people ate them.

[ironymaiden]

I haven't heard of anyone eating banana leaves, only of using them as wrappers for cooking, like corn husks for tamales.

...and this was answered while I had the tab open

[asakiyume]

No worries--multiple confirmations of a thing are not a problem!

[minoanmiss]

*alugh at myself* The banana leaves made me cry unexpectedly with nostalgia. Not that they're used much for cooking in Jamaica (the slow barbecuing that used to be done in banana leaves is now done by other methods) but I remember banana trees and their massive beautiful leaves from my childhood.. I remember just standing beneath and stroking the leaves, the tactile experience..

You always bring us so much beauty. Thank you.

[asakiyume]

Awww! I can imagine that so, so clearly! If I had grown up with banana trees, I would have wanted to stroke their leaves too. As it was, when I first got to be near them in person, I just wanted to stand by them in awe.

[queenoftheskies]

Dang, those ARE big.

[asakiyume]

Right? I think they'd make a good dress. (In fact, people do make cloth from banana fiber, but not from the leaves just as is... for one thing, they'd just dry out. But if they didn't, wouldn't they be beautiful to wear?)

[zyzyly]

That looks pretty good! Banana leaves are so versatile.

[asakiyume]

They sure are!