Kamayan

Kamayan is a Filipino cultural term for the various occasions or contexts in which pagkakamay (Tagalog: "[eating] with the hands") is practiced. Eating with hands is also known as kinamot or kinamut in Visayan languages.

While eating with the hands started out as a common practice before the arrival of European colonizers, its cultural significance has become elevated in the Philippines' postcolonial culture, since the practice had been discouraged by the Philippines' Spanish and American colonizers who instead encouraged the use of spoons and forks.

While kamayan or pagkakamay can be an ordinary everyday activity for many in their own homes, it may also be part of communal feasting (called salu-salo in Tagalog). Such feasts traditionally served the food on platters laid on large leaves, such as banana or breadfruit, spread on a table, with the diners eating with their hands from their own plates.

A separate tradition which involves the food being served directly on large leaves spread on a table and the diners eating with the hands without plates or utensils straight off the leaves and sitting or (more authentically) standing side by side is the boodle fight, a tradition of the Armed Forces of the Philippines originally practiced by Philippine Military Academy cadets, and named for military slang from the United States Military Academy West Point. The intent is to build military camaraderie by getting military personnel to enjoy the same food together, regardless of rank.

Among restaurants both inside and outside of the Philippines, the concept of "boodle fight" has often been erroneously conflated with kamayan and salu-salo, and the latter terms tend to be wrongly used synonymously when marketing the Filipino food experience. In commercial contexts, the term "Kamayan feasts" tends to be used for boodle fights in practice. While all boodle fights are kamayan, not all boodle fights need be a salu-salo (particularly with respect to its military and not pre-colonial origins), not all salu-salo feasts are kamayan, and not all kamayan eating is part of salu-salo celebrations.