>what the heck are platanos???

Platanos are a species of banana that's big. The two main ways to eat them is as tostones (toast-on-ess) or tajadas (tah-hah-dahs).

Tostones you make when the platano is still green. You slice them, then beat each slice up with a hammer to make it thinner and deep-fry it.

Tajadas is when the platano is ripe (completely yellow to completely black). You slice the platano and fry the slices.

BTW, the riper it is, the sweeter it will taste, and whenever I cook it, I eat a couple of slices raw but then I will eat anything raw. For me it's enough that it's not moving anymore (or yet). ;-)

Another very good way to eat them platanos is to take the whole thing (without the skin), slice it lengthwise in two, put some ground mozzarella cheese between the two pieces, butter the "sandwich", wrap it in foil and throw it in the oven until it's golden. Oh man, my boca is watering...

ALex