Platanitos Cronch
This is a Frito Lay snack food sold in Colombia. Some friends who visited the country were kind enough to bring the bag back for me as an example of the snacks available there.
It is a very straight-forward snack; the ingredients are plantains, vegetable oil, and salt—basically the plantain version of a potato chip, but much less greasy than Lay’s potato chips tend to be. I really enjoyed the flavor, and if I ever see its equivalent sold in the states, I’ll be certain to pick up a bag.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Aren’t these just like what we know as banana chips?
November 28th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Plantains are different than bananas.
November 29th, 2007 at 8:20 am
There is a Nicarauguan restaurant in Carnegie, Pa, called Rivas, and plaintains (fresh cooked ones) are one of the side dishes that you can get. They also have a root crop called Yuca, that is very good, that you can get on the side.
If interested, check out the link on my name for a review of Rivas.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Yuca was one of the featured dishes at our Thanksgiving meal this year, prepared by one of our guests who lamented that they couldn’t find it fresh but only frozen. Nevertheless, it was tasty. They served it fried and it resembled a french fry but perhaps a bit starchier and a bit sweeter as well.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
[...] As far as the plantains go, they are a starchy banana, a cooking banana, not a banana that you peel and eat out of hand. I have eaten plantain chips before, and am a big fan, but I have never tried cooking plantains myself, so I turned to sources who have for guidance. They recommended slicing the plantains down into medallions, pan frying them, removing them from the oil and mashing them down, dunking them in salt water, and pan frying a second time. According to these instructions, the plantains shouldn’t splatter when you return them to the oil for their second frying because they absorb the water. [...]