By Lydia D. Castillo
September 28, 2014
(Source: http://www.philstar.com/starweek-magazine/2014/09/28/1373746/eighteen-and-growing)
We remember some of our farm hands who, at lunch time, would pull out what looked like a ball from their bags, then start unwrapping it. It was a square of banana leaf, holding a mound of rice, a fried fish, sometimes meat, and a tomato. With their hands they ate with gusto their baon – a packed meal, the banana leaf serving as their lunch box.
This way of eating did not escape the creative mind of a young man, Rommel, who thought of adopting and selling packed meals in this native way. Just out of university he plunged into his pet project, Binalot, which was a meal packed in banana leaf, sold in his first outlet. He was not without encouragement from his siblings and an aunt, the enterprising entrepreneur Chit.