When it comes to bananas most people don't think much about the entire plant as a whole but rather just the yellow fruit that we've all come to know and enjoy.
As such, it may come to a surprise to some people, especially when walking in the vegetable markets of Laos, to see a whole bunch of these purple looking plants. They are in fact the unopened flower buds of the banana tree, called mak bpee ໝາກປີ.
In Laos, they're chopped thinly, giving them a shredded like appearance.
They have a very bitter, almost astringent, flavour. Thus, you would never eat it on its own. Instead, you would add it to counter a savoury dish. In fact, they're often used in different meat salads (or lap as they're called in Lao or goy pa if referring to a fish based meat salad).
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