View source for Kamayan

{{Short description|Filipino folkway for eating a communal meal}}
{{Infobox food
| name             = Kamayan
| image            = Boodle fight (kamayan) 02.jpg
| image_size       = 300px
| caption          = Kamayan as applied through a boodle fight
| alternate_name   = kinamo, kinamut
| country          = [[Philippines]]
| region           =
| creator          =
| course           =
| type             =
| served           =
| main_ingredient  =
| variations       =
| calories         =
| other            = [[Sadya]]
}}
[[File:Boodle Fight (Baler, Aurora).jpg|thumb|A beach boodle fight in [[Baler, Aurora]].]]
[[File:Boodle fight.jpg|thumb|Men of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the [[Philippine Army]] are joined by civilians in a boodle fight.]]
{{Meals}}
'''Kamayan''' is a [[Filipino people|Filipino]] [[Culture of the Philippines|cultural term]] for the various occasions or contexts in which '''pagkakamay''' ([[Tagalog language|Tagalog]]: "[eating] with the hands") is practiced,<ref>[[Gilda Cordero-Fernando|Cordero-Fernando, Gilda]]. 1976. The Culinary Culture of the Philippines. Manila, Philippines: Bancom Audiovision Corporation.</ref><ref name="DGFernandezinEnriquez1986">[[Doreen G. Fernandez]], “Food and the Filipino,” in Philippine World-View, [[Virgilio G. Enriquez]], ed. (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1986), pp. 20–44</ref> including as part of communal [[feast|feasting]] (called '''''salu-salo''''' in [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]]).<ref>{{cite news |title=The practice of kamayan and how it fosters Pinoy pride |url=https://www.rappler.com/brandrap/health-beauty-and-wellness/how-kamayan-practice-filipino-pride |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=Rappler |date=11 December 2018}}</ref><ref name="makalintal">{{cite news |last1=Makalintal |first1=Bettina |title=With A Show Of Hands, Filipino-American Chefs Rekindle Kamayan Feasts |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/01/20/578649880/with-a-show-of-hands-filipino-american-chefs-rekindle-kamayan-feasts |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=NPR |date=20 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="Abbey">{{cite news |last1=Abbey |first1=Francis |title=Love and pork - The Filipino feast you eat with your hands |url=https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/nation-world/filipino-food-kuya-ja-lechon-belly-kinamot-boodle-fight-kamayan/507-e4ca51c7-0729-4d67-af3c-6d39788314cb |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=WUSA9 |date=18 November 2019}}</ref> Such feasts traditionally served the food on large leaves such as banana or breadfruit spread on a table, with the diners eating from their own plates.<ref name="Mendiola"/><ref name="Ivatan"/> The practice is also known as '''kinamot''' or '''kinamut''' in [[Visayan languages]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Cebu’s ‘puso’ |url=https://www.sunstar.com.ph/more-articles/cebus-puso |website=SunStar |access-date=11 November 2024}}</ref>
While kamayan started out as a common [[mores|folkway]] before the arrival of European colonizers, its culturally significance has become elevated in the Philippines' postcolonial culture, since the practice of pagkakamay had been discouraged by the Philippines' Spanish and American colonizers.<ref name="Bender2018"/>
A separate<ref name="Bender2018"/><ref name="BettinaMakalintal"/> tradition which involves eating with the hands straight off the table is the '''boodle fight''', a tradition of the [[Armed Forces of the Philippines]] originally practiced by [[Philippine Military Academy]] cadets,<ref name="SunStarKadayawan">{{cite web | url=https://www.sunstar.com.ph/more-articles/kadayawans-boodle-fight-by-park-inn | title=Kadayawan's Boodle Fight by Park Inn | website=[[SunStar]] | date=23 August 2015 }}</ref> and drawn from a similar tradition at the [[United States Military Academy| United States Military Academy West Point]].<ref name="Bender2018">Bender, D. E., & De Leon, A. (2018). Everybody was boodle fighting: military histories, culinary tourism, and diasporic dining. Food, Culture & Society, 21(1), 25–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2017.1398469</ref> The intent is to build military camaraderie by getting military personnel to enjoy the same food together, regardless of rank.<ref name="SunStarKadayawan"/>
Among restaurants outside of the Philippines, however, the term "boodle fight" has often been conflated with "kamayan" and "salo-salo," and the terms tend to be used synonymously when marketing the Filipino food experience.<ref name="BettinaMakalintal">{{Cite web |last=Yap |first=Liz  |title=A Seat at the Table |url=https://outofprint.ph/Bettina-Makalintal |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410131433/https://outofprint.ph/Bettina-Makalintal |archive-date=2021-04-10 |access-date=2024-04-07 |website=Out of Print |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last =Marcaida | first =Joana Joyce | title =The boodle fight | url =http://www.eaglenews.ph/youth/young-voices-speak/the-boodle-fight/ | date =26 August 2015 | access-date =16 June 2017 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.angsarap.net/2015/05/21/what-is-a-boodle-fight/|title=What is a Boodle Fight? - Ang Sarap|date=2015-05-21|website=Ang Sarap (A Tagalog word for "It's Delicious")|language=en-NZ|access-date=2020-02-10}}</ref>
==Etymology==
The Tagalog term "kamayan" is formed from the root word {{lang|tl|kamay}} and [[wikt:Appendix:Tagalog_affixes#Suffixes|the noun-forming suffix "-an"]] which indicates "collectivity, object, place, and instrument."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Tagalog_affixes#Suffixes | title=Appendix:Tagalog affixes | date=16 April 2024 }}</ref> Both "pagkamay" and "kinamot" mean "[eating] with the hands", from the root words {{lang|tl|kamay}} and {{lang|ceb|kamot}}, both meaning "hands".<ref name="Sogn">{{cite news |last1=Sogn |first1=Jamie |title=Filipino Kamayan Dining from the San Fernando Valley to the Mission |url=https://www.kcet.org/shows/the-migrant-kitchen/eat-with-your-hands-filipino-kamayan-dining-from-the-san-fernando-valley-to-the-mission |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=KCET |date=9 August 2017}}</ref>
Meanwhile, "[[wikt:salu-salo|Salu-salo]]" means "feast" or "banquet", a [[reduplication]] of {{lang|tl|salo}}, "to eat together" or "to share food".
==Kamayan and salu-salo==
Kamayan also describes the traditional communal feasts or family meals, where rice and various colorful dishes are placed on banana leaves and eaten together. The banana leaves are washed and slightly wilted over open flames to bring out an oily sheen and then laid out on a long table.<ref name="Mendiola">{{cite news |last1=Mendiola |first1=Idge |title=How to Create a Boodle Fight: A Guide to This Easy but Festive Way of Entertaining |url=https://www.esquiremag.ph/food-and-drink/food/how-to-make-boodle-a00019-20190708-lfrm |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=Esquire |date=8 July 2019}}</ref> In the [[Batanes Islands]] in the northern Philippines, large [[breadfruit]] ({{lang|ivv|tipuho}}) leaves are used instead in a serving tradition called {{lang|ivv|vunung}} or {{lang|ivv|vunong}}.<ref name="Ivatan">{{cite web |title=The Ivatan Cuisine: Must-Try Batanes Dishes |url=http://www.cielofernando.com/2019/09/the-ivatan-cuisine.html |website=The Girl Behind The Pen |access-date=17 June 2022}}</ref>
==Method of ''pagkakamay''==
Pagkakamay describes the act of eating with the bare hands, which is the traditional pre-colonial method of eating in Filipino culture. This is done by forming a small mound of rice, adding a piece of the accompanying dish for flavor (the {{lang|tl|ulam}}), compressing it into a small pyramid with the fingers, lifting it to the mouth nestled in four cupped fingers, and then pushing it into the mouth with the thumb. The entire process only uses the fingers of one hand. It never uses the palms of the hands and the fingers also never enter the mouth. The other hand is not used and may instead be used to hold the plate or a drink.<ref name="Abbey"/><ref name="frc">{{cite web |title=Kamayan - Eat Using Your Hands Culture |url=http://www.filipino-recipe.com/articles/kamayan-eat-using-your-hands-culture.html |website=Filipino-Recipe.com |access-date=22 August 2021}}</ref><ref name="primer">{{cite web |title=Use Your Hands: Traditional Filipino Way of Eating |url=https://primer.com.ph/tips-guides/2016/02/07/use-your-hands-traditional-filipino-way-of-eating/ |website=Primer.com.ph |access-date=22 August 2021}}</ref>
==Social significance==
Kamayan is an informal and intimate method of dining. It has a general atmosphere of sharing, and participants usually talk throughout the meal. It does not have the strict etiquette and rules of western dining, and the dishes served depend on what is available. Kamayan may be done in private family meals or in gatherings, parties, picnics, or {{lang|tl|fiestas}}.<ref name="makalintal"/><ref name="Sogn"/><ref name="Mendiola"/>
==History==
The practice of kamayan is pre-colonial. It has been described in by [[Antonio Pigafetta]] in the [[Magellan expedition]], as well as by Spanish missionaries during the [[Spanish colonial period of the Philippines|Spanish colonial period]].<ref name="makalintal"/> While utensils like wooden spoons and ladles existed for serving and cooking in pre-colonial Filipino culture, they were not used for eating.<ref name="Kohnen">{{cite book |last1=Kohnen |first1=Norbert |last2=Kohnen |first2=Petra |title=Igorot: Traditional Ways of Life and Healing Among Philippine Mountain Tribes |date=1986 |publisher=SDK Systemdruck Köln GmbH}}</ref><ref name="Limos">{{cite news |last1=Limos |first1=Mario Alvaro |title=These Precolonial Filipino Words Recorded by Pigafetta Are Still Used Today |url=https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/precolonial-filipino-words-recorded-by-pigafetta-a00293-20210311-lfrm2 |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=Esquire |date=11 March 2021}}</ref>
The practice was tolerated during the Spanish period, but it was suppressed during the [[American colonial period of the Philippines|American colonial period]] when American dining etiquette and the use of spoons and forks were aggressively promoted.<ref name="Ting">{{cite news |last1=Ting |first1=Jasmine P. |title=Cooking for the Kamayan |url=https://www.saveur.com/kamayan-feast-filipino-feasts/ |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=Saveur |date=4 January 2019}}</ref><ref name="Greaves">{{cite news |last1=Greaves |first1=Vanessa |title=Getting in Touch Through Kamayan, the Ultimate Filipino Feast |url=https://www.allrecipes.com/article/kamayan-ultimate-filipino-feast/ |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=allrecipes |date=29 September 2020}}</ref>
Kamayan became a particularly popular way of celebrating Filipino culture in the 1980s and 1990s, a fact reflected in the ubiquitous popularity of an upscale restaurant chain called "Kamayan."<ref>https://www.spot.ph/eatdrink/the-latest-eat-drink/69683/spooned-forked-and-fingered-a1642-20170324-lfrm {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref>
===Boodle fight===
A boodle fight is a meal that dispenses with [[cutlery]] and [[Plate (dishware)|dishes]].<ref>{{cite book | last =Boorman | first =Charley | title =Right To The Edge: Sydney To Tokyo By Any Means: The Road to the End of the Earth | publisher =Hachette | year =2009 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=figyLatV9S0C&dq=boodle+fight&pg=PT143 | isbn =978-0748113156 }}</ref> Diners instead practice kamayan and eat straight off the table unlike typical instances of eating with the hands off individual plates.<ref>{{cite web | last =Lowry | first =Dave | title =Hand-to-Mouth Combat: Experiencing a Kamayan Dinner at Hiro Asian Kitchen | url=https://www.stlmag.com/dining/hand-to-mouth-combat-experiencing-a-kamayan-dinner-at-hiro-asian-kitchen/ | date=6 January 2016 | access-date = 16 June 2017}}</ref> The food is placed on top of a long [[banana leaf]]-lined [[trestle table]] and in the true military practice, diners do not sit in chairs but instead stand shoulder to shoulder in a line on both sides of the table.<ref>{{cite web | last =Dumdum Jr. | first =Simeon | title =The boodle fight | url=http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/210027/the-boodle-fight | publisher = [[Philippine Daily Inquirer]] | date = 10 June 2012 | access-date = 19 March 2008}}</ref>
A senior [[Officer (armed forces)|officer]] or [[Enlisted rank|enlisted]] personnel then utters the traditional command for the boodle fight to begin:
<blockquote><poem>
"Ready on the left,
Ready on the right,
Commence boodle fight!"
</poem></blockquote>
The name "boodle fight" likely{{speculation inline|date=April 2024}} originated from the term "boodle", which is [[United States|American]] [[military slang]] for [[contraband]] sweets<ref>{{cite book | last =Dolph | first =Edward Arthur | title ="Sound off!" Soldier Songs from the Revolution to World War II | publisher =Farrar & Rinehart | year =1942 | page = 579 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=HLU7AQAAIAAJ&q=boodle+fight }}</ref> such as [[cake]], [[candy]] and [[ice cream]]. A "boodle fight" is a party in which boodle fare is served.<ref>{{cite book |  last =Dickson | first =Paul | title =War Slang: American Fighting Words & Phrases Since the Civil War | publisher =Courier Corporation | year =2014 | page = 132 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=XGNMBAAAQBAJ&dq=boodle+fight&pg=PA132 | isbn =978-0486797168 }}</ref> The term may have also been derived from "[[wikt:kit and caboodle|kit and caboodle]]"; caboodle is further derived from [[boodle]] or [[wikt:booty|booty]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-who2.htm |title=Whole kit and kaboodle |publisher=World Wide Words |date=April 10, 1999 |access-date=May 16, 2012}}</ref>
A growing number of Filipino restaurants are serving meals boodle fight-style. In commercial contexts, the dishes in a boodle fight are arranged equidistantly throughout the table to ensure everyone has equal access. Rice are typically plain steamed [[white rice]] that is not too mushy, [[sinangag]] (garlic rice), or rice cooked in coconut leaves ([[puso]]). Typical dishes aside from rice, includes [[inihaw]] (barbecues, including [[lechon]], whole roasted pork), [[lumpia]], fried meats (like [[crispy pata]]), [[tocino]] (cured pork), [[Tapa (Filipino cuisine)|tapa]], [[longganisa]] (sausages), [[pancit]] (noodles), boiled eggs or [[salted egg]]s, seafood, dried fish, and blanched, fresh, or stir-fried vegetables. These are provided with a variety of [[sawsawan]] (dipping sauces), [[calamansi]], [[bagoong]], as well as pickled vegetables ([[atchara]]). Desserts are also included, like ripe or unripe [[Philippine mango]]es, pineapples, watermelons, papaya, young [[coconut]], [[leche flan]], and various [[kakanin]] (rice cakes). Drinks are usually fruit juices, beer, wine, or [[softdrink]]s. As a rule, soups and stews are not included.<ref name="Mendiola">{{cite news |last1=Mendiola |first1=Idge |title=How to Create a Boodle Fight: A Guide to This Easy but Festive Way of Entertaining |url=https://www.esquiremag.ph/food-and-drink/food/how-to-make-boodle-a00019-20190708-lfrm |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=Esquire |date=8 July 2019}}</ref><ref name="Abbey"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Cebu's 'puso' |url=https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/285091/Local-News/Cebus-puso |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=SunStar Philippines |date=19 May 2013}}</ref><ref name="Chavez-Bush">{{cite news |last1=Chavez-Bush |first1=Leigh |title=Kamayan: These epic Filipino feasts feature lavish spreads and forego utensils. |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/kamayan-boodle-fight |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=Atlas Obscura}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=How To Prepare A Boodle Fight At Home, a.k.a. "Kamayan Feast" on Banana Leaves |url=https://www.jeanelleats.com/post/how-to-prepare-a-boodle-fight-at-home-a-k-a-kamayan-feast-on-banana-leaves |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=Jeanelleats}}</ref>
==See also==
*[[Banana leaf]]
*[[Military tradition]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
{{Filipino cuisine}}
[[Category:Eating parties]]
[[Category:Serving and dining]]
[[Category:Armed Forces of the Philippines]]
[[Category:Filipino cuisine]]
[[Category:Military life]]