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

[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.