banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

I was in Oahu last week and on the north shore there was a fruit stand on the side of the road that had these tamales wrapped in banana leaves, the tamales were made of banana coconut and rice, I had never had anything like that but man were they good. I dont know if they are really named tamales but thats what they look like. Does anyone know what Im talking about and is there a recipe.

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

They're called Suman in the Philippines. Delicious! If you Google Suman you will find several Filipino recipes which use sweet, sticky rice - available in many Asian food sections of grocery stores.

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

This is a common desert in Southeast Asian countries. I've had them from Thai people, but I've forgotten the name; it's not tamale, though. I've had them in farmers markets on Oahu and on the Big Island. A the risk of sounding heretical on this forum, I like the ones made with mango the best. As they say in the Islands, "Some ono!"

Ken

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

I just called my wife, who is Thai, to find the Thai name for this dessert. It's kao tom. Literally, it means "boiled rice," but she assured me that it refers specifically to the sweet, sticky rice mixed with with coconut milk, with a slice of banana inside, and wrapped in a banana leaf. It's an example of that class of foods generally called kah-nome in Thai: snacks.

Ken

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

Aloha MSmith,

I am delighted that you enjoyed your trip to the islands and that you were brave enough to sample the local cuisine!! That yummy wrapped in banana tamale is a Pastele, brought to the island by the Puerto Ricans that came here to work the plantations. I think Pasteles are "onolicious" also. Here is a link to an article and recipes from the Star-Bulletin.

Honolulu Star-Bulletin Features

Preparing the Pasteles is time consuming and fiddley, but if you make a huge batch, they do freeze well.

Enjoy and mahalo,
Kara from Waikiki

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

That's a great link, Kara. I'm going to keep it. When I lived on the Big Island, I used to buy pateles from a family by the side of the road. They were like the "pork pasteles" in the article, meat filled. My question is, are pasteles, and pateles the same thing? Perhaps I misunderstood the roadside sellers. A woman in my building works in a patele store in the Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu. I swear that's how it sounds to me.

Ken

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

I also had some mango from the same stand. I dont really like mango but whatever type that was I liked it alot, it was already sliced and inside a plastic bag so I dont know the cultivar.

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

A slightly different treat from Chinatown (Oahu) is called Banh it Nhan Dua. It is a snack / dessert coconutty mochi outside inside sweet noodly sorta. Wrapped in banana leaves, cone shaped. Timing is tricky - they come and sell out generally between about 9 AM and noon. These were in a store called Lien and arrived just before 9. Thanks for the recipes - all look testable.

Re: banana tamale wrapped in banana leaves
 

PM sent . . . .

Chong