The ever useful banana leaf

After 10 days with my newborn grandson, I got a break yesterday, to go for lunch with my friend Noni. My DIL and baby have gone to her mother's house for the post-partum period until end of June when she starts work again. In the meantime, Im trying to catch up on my gardening, blogging and other activities which have been neglected since the birth of my grandson. For a long time, Noni has been pestering me to follow her to eat the Banana Leaf Rice in Bangsar and away we went yesterday!

The place was very crowded with the lunchtime crowd and had to queue up just to get a sit. There was a mix bunch of people from all walks of life and races enjoying the sumptious food there. We were sharing our table with 2 lovely young Chinese ladies.

the laying of the banana leaves on the table...

- the Banana Leaf rice originated from South India, a generous helping of rice served on a banana leaf in place of a plate with curry, veggies, meat or fish of your choice! You can ask for second helping too...more rice, more curry or more veggies!

you can choose your curries - fish, chicken or dhal...all 4 of us had all three!

the generous helping of rice with all 3 spicy curries 'flooding' my banana leaf! The smell of the curries have you salivate and anticipate what else is coming on your leaf!

Walla! Just look at my 'plate' - we have 3 types of veggies - cucumber in coconut milk (salad), gourd in tumeric and crispy deep fried bitter gourds plus a plate of chicken masala and freshly fried ikan tenggiri. A mountain of a rice to savour and enjoy! After eating this, you will definitely fall asleep!

my two banana plants - grown mainly for the useful leaves, to wrap sweet kueh (cakes) like lepat (ripe banana mixed with flour and grated young coconut as filling) or to grill fish or as a lovely background on a serving plate, as the leaf gives the food a subtle aroma and flavour to your food

In Malaysia we have many restaurants serving Banana Leaf Rice and they were favourites among all races. The banana leaf acts as a plate, so you can just throw it away after eating - no need to wash, though we presumed, they are cleaned before being served food on them. Most Malay or Indian household will have at least a banana plant grown in their compound.

the most common use of the banana leaf in Malaysia is as a wrapper for our all-time favourite food - Nasi Lemak! When you open up a wrapped nasi lemak, the aroma of the banana leaf makes the rice not only fragrance but tasteful! Emmmmm.....

photo from viets world kitchen

also widely used when grilling fish

photo from wan's kitchen
kueh kochi - glutinuos rice flour wrapped in banana leaf with sweet young grated coconut filling
in the centre


photo from wan's kitchen
pulut panggang - glutinuos rice wrapped in banana leaf with savoury filling, roasted on hot charcoal


otak-otak, - spicy fish paste wrapped in banana leaf, roasted on hot charcoal, a very famous dish from the Southern state of Johore. Those are some of the uses of the banana leaf in cooking, there are plenty more kueh wrapped in them which are are not shown here.



The banana tree is a very useful plant to grow in your backyard. You can eat the fruits, the flowers (jantung pisang), use the leaves in cooking, and make rope with the hemp from the trunk. Besides being used in cooking, the leaves are also used as a decorating element during weddings and religious ceremonies for the Hindus and Buddhists. They are nicely cut and patterned with strings attached to them, hanged on wedding tents, doors, temples or decorating the altar or on their gifts offering.