Kamayan
Eat With Your Hands

Reserve our Kamayan Table on Thursdays & Fridays!

Kamayan means ‘eat with your hands’ in Tagalog. It is a pre-colonial style of communal eating, where the food is displayed on banana leaves instead of plates and is eaten with your hands. It is a stunning and colorful display of a variety of Filipino foods, and the experience is amplified by the opportunity to eat together in community.

You can now experience your very own kamayan in this unique and interactive dine-in experience at Harana Market. Our team will build your kamayan spread in front of you on your banana leaf-covered table. We will talk you through your full kamayan menu and show you how to eat with your hands. Eating with your hands connects you to the food and makes for an intimate experience with each ingredient.

Our Kamayan Menu is $70/person and includes

  • hot hand towel

  • at least three items from our best-sellers menu (sample items = bok choy, tofu sisig, fried chicken, lumpiang shanghai)

  • at least two items from our specials menu (sample items = barbecue skewers, daing na bangus (fried milkfish), sabow (soup), lechon kawali (crispy pork belly)

  • jasmine and garlic rice

  • fresh-cut fruits

  • a non-alcoholic drink of your choice

  • dessert

DETAILS

$70/person
Available Thursday & Friday from 4:30-8:00.
We can accommodate groups from 2-8.
We have a limited number of kamayan table seatings each day. Reservations encouraged.

Reservations will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis. To make a reservation, call 845-684-5835 during business hours or email hello@haranamarket.com with KAMAYAN RESERVATION (DATE) in the subject line.

DID YOU KNOW?

Kamayan was a common practice of eating in the Philippine islands before Spanish and American colonization. Both colonizers tried to discourage it - the Spanish quickly introduced forks, spoons, and plates to assimilate the Filipino population, and the Americans promoted eating with utensils to “civilize the culture..

“Although the tradition had been around for centuries, Kamayan disappeared among city dwellers and the Filipino intelligentsia during the Spanish and American colonization, as well as British occupation, up to post WW2. This was as Western etiquette deemed it ‘uncivilized’ to eat with your hands. A consciousness and resurgence of Kamayan started in the mid-seventies when Ray Bautista and Vic Vic Villavicencio opened an elegantly interiorized restaurant where one can indulge in this form of feasting,” says Gene Gonzalez. While it wasn’t a common occurrence, Kamayan soon became acceptable again and slowly made its way back into Filipino family traditions.” (Johnny Garmeson)

This offering of Kamayan should be seen as a form of resistance to colonialism and is a way to uphold the cultural traditions of our people.