Kamayan

The Tagalog term "kamayan" is formed from the root word {{lang|tl|kamay}} and the noun-forming suffix "-an" which indicates "collectivity, object, place, and instrument."{{cite web | url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Tagalog_affixes#Suffixes | title=Appendix:Tagalog affixes | date=16 April 2024 }} Both "pagkamay" and "kinamot" mean "[eating] with the hands", from the root words {{lang|tl|kamay}} and {{lang|ceb|kamot}}, both meaning "hands".{{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}}

Meanwhile, "Salu-salo" means "feast" or "banquet", a reduplication of {{lang|tl|salo}}, "to eat together" or "to share food".

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.{{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}} 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}}.{{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}}

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.{{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 |archive-date=22 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210822015954/http://www.filipino-recipe.com/articles/kamayan-eat-using-your-hands-culture.html |url-status=dead }}{{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}}

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}}.

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. While utensils like wooden spoons and ladles existed for serving and cooking in pre-colonial Filipino culture, they were not used for eating.{{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}}{{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}}

The practice was tolerated during the Spanish period, but it was suppressed during the American colonial period when American dining etiquette and the use of spoons and forks were aggressively promoted.{{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}}{{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}}

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."https://www.spot.ph/eatdrink/the-latest-eat-drink/69683/spooned-forked-and-fingered-a1642-20170324-lfrm {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}

A boodle fight is a meal that dispenses with cutlery and dishes.{{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 }} Diners instead eat with their hands straight off the table unlike typical kamayan instances of eating with the hands off individual plates.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

A senior officer or enlisted personnel then utters the traditional command for the boodle fight to begin:

"Ready on the left,

Ready on the right,

Commence boodle fight!"

The name "boodle fight" likely{{speculation inline|date=April 2024}} originated from the term "boodle", which is American military slang for contraband sweets{{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 }} such as cake, candy and ice cream. A "boodle fight" is a party in which boodle fare is served.{{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 }} The term may have also been derived from "kit and caboodle"; caboodle is further derived from boodle or booty.{{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}}

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 is 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, longganisa (sausages), pancit (noodles), boiled eggs or salted eggs, 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 mangoes, pineapples, watermelons, papaya, young coconut, leche flan, and various kakanin (rice cakes). Drinks are usually fruit juices, beer, wine, or softdrinks. As a rule, soups and stews are not included.{{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}}{{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}}{{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}}

• Banana leaf
• Military tradition

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• {{Commons category-inline}}

{{Filipino cuisine}}

Category:Eating parties

Category:Serving and dining

Category:Armed Forces of the Philippines

Category:Filipino cuisine

Category:Military life