Another dumpling that originated in Puerto Rico is the pasteles, a dumpling made of grated root vegetables, squash, plantains, and unripe bananas.

It is important to note that unripe bananas can not be held in the home refrigerator as they suffer from the cold.

Fresh banana leaves are laid on top of them, and then the unripe bananas.

In most tropical countries, green (unripe) bananas used for cooking represent the main cultivars.

Both ripe and unripe bananas are used for this variant.

Hap's face was a pale greenish-yellow, beaded with sweat; it reminded Reis of an unripe banana, just washed under the tap.

Sometimes the gray paste is eaten by farmers in the fields, raw and horrifying, smeared on the tip of an unripe green banana.

"There I stood, quivering, a 6-foot-3, 20-year-old rookie. . . . I was nave, innocent and as green as an unripe banana."

The only drawback of liking slightly unripe bananas is that the thick peel can be hard to open.