Banana leaf
[6] In Tamil Nadu (India) leaves are fully dried and used as packing material for foodstuffs, and are also made into cups to hold liquids.
In Indonesian cuisine, banana leaf is employed in cooking methods called pepes and botok; the banana-leaf packets of food are steamed, boiled, or grilled on charcoal.
In Java, banana leaf is also used as a shallow conical bowl called "pincuk", usually to serve rujak tumbuk, pecel or satay.
The cleaned banana leaf is often used as a placemat; cut banana-leaf sheets placed on rattan, bamboo or clay plates are used to serve food.
Decorated and folded banana leaves on woven bamboo plates are used as serving trays, tumpeng rice cones, and holders for jajan pasar or kue delicacies.
The bilao is normally a farm implement used for removing chaff from grains, although there are now smaller woven trays or carved wooden plates of the same kind in Filipino restaurants used specifically for serving food.
Guanimos are Dominican tamales made with cornmeal, stuffed with ground meat and wrapped with banana leaves.
Many rice dishes in Puerto Rico are cooked with banana leaves as a lid to add flavor and aroma.
Guanimes known as Puerto Rican tamales, cornmeal cooked with coconut milk and other ingredients, are wrapped in banana leaves.
In Jamaica, Haiti, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, French Guiana and some other islands in the Lesser Antilles, there is a dessert called duckunoo or duckanoo, also referred to as tie-a-leaf or blue drawers (draws) (in Jamaica), dokonon (in French Guiana), doukunou (in Haiti), paime (in Trinidad & Tobago), penmi (in St Lucia) and ducunu or tamalito (in Belize).
Mexican, and more specifically Oaxacan tamales and a local variety of lamb or barbacoa tacos are often steamed in banana leaves.
Filling consists of seasoned pork meat, rice, a slice of potato, bell pepper, tomato, onion, olives, cilantro and/or spearmint sprigs, and on occasion, though less commonly, capers, raisins or fresh chile (red or green), all wrapped in banana leaves.
Coast side region prepare dishes as Bollo, green plantain and peanut butter batter filled with fish or pork wrapped in a banana leaf, this is then baked in a brick oven or steamed.
Manabi province prepare a dish called Tonga a chicken stew with rice dyed with achiote and peanut salsa, all this served on a banana leaf and then wrapped.
Amazonian provinces has Maito where grilled fish is served with yucca and rice, wrapped in a banana leaves.
[15] Banana leaves are used by Hindus and Buddhists as a decorative element for special functions, marriages, and ceremonies in southern India and Southeast Asia.
[16] Balinese Hindu prepare banana leaves as containers for floral offerings called canang to the hyang (spirits or deities) and gods.
The rounded letters of many of the scripts of southern India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia such as Oriya and Sinhala, Burmese, Baybayin, and Javanese, for example, are thought to have been influenced by this.
Sharp angles and tracing straight lines along the vein of the leaf with a sharp writing implement would risk splitting the leaf and ruining the surface, so rounded letters, or letters with straight lines only in the vertical or diagonal direction, were required for practical daily use.
