Kamayan style lunch!

How do you feel about eating with your hands?

Sometime last month Bert and TC attended a "welcome party" for the new dance troupe members...

The lunch was a traditional "kamayan" style affair...

"Kamayan" is a Tagalog word which means "to dine or eat with your hands" ("kamay" is the word for "hands"). While Filipinos do use the fork and spoon, due to Western influence, the traditional way, as in many parts of Asia, is to use your hands. To properly eat with your hands, you are supposed to ball up some of your food with the rice, pick it up and eat it by bring it up to your mouth and using your thumb to push the food to your mouth. One thing I found interesting is that there is no stigma attached to eating with your left hand either. In India, the "left" hand is the "unclean" hand (the one used to wipe your...). I would have been screwed in India. Not so in the Philippines! But I digress...

I couldn't attend the event  but Bert did a great job in photo documenting the process.

First of all, the table had to be prepared. The mostly finger foods were brought in potluck style by the families.

Here, one dancer's father is peeling the previously frozen banana leaves.

Another parent was warming up the leaves on the stove top to make them pliable.

The leaves were used to decorate several long tables.  Traditionally, you wouldn't use a paper or plastic plate, but would eat off of the banana leaves DIRECTLY the table.  However, in order to do so, segments of the table would have to be arranged with the same food groupings. In this case, the table offerings were not apportioned for that setup, so guests would actually have to use paper plates.

The table had rice, of course, and a variety of finger foods, like fried chicken wings...

and lechon kawali (with vinegar dipping sauce). Someone brought vegetables but according to Bert, those were difficult to eat because they were "saucy" and kind of messy.

Next we have fried fish (tilapia) cut into segments, including the heads...

At the very end of the table were salted duck eggs (these were NOT balut, since those have a half formed duck inside; these had yolks), chopped tomatoes and fried dilis (anchovies). Bert thought the duck eggs were extremely salty. They are meant to be that way and are eaten with lots of tomatoes and rice to cut the saltiness.

The view at the end...

Families helping themselves to the table's bounty...

After blessing the food, the executive director of the dance company gave a small explanation of the meaning of "kamayan" and the cultural values associated with eating together and with the hands to the gathered families, children and teens.

Below, Bert's plate where he got a little bit of everything.

TC said that sometimes my mom (aka Grandma) lets her and the older boy cousins eat with their hands at their house so the "kamayan" wasn't that big of a deal. Culturally, it was eye opening for the younger dancers to see the "traditional" or "native" way of eating in the Motherland.

Hopefully they will have another Kamayan soon...