asakiyume: (feathers on the line)
asakiyume ([personal profile] asakiyume) wrote2018-12-13 11:30 pm

Koba and Calle 13

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.

banana leaf is long

loooong banana leaf

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

in the pot, getting ready to be steamed
banana leaf and koba packets

finished product
koba

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.


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