Plantain, believed to have originated in southeast Asia refers to the cooking banana, cultivars of the banana plant, which produces an edible fruit that is full of starch and rarely eaten raw. Though similar in appearance, the two banana varieties are typically used in very different ways. Usually, in many cultures where this fruit is a staple diet, it is boiled, fried, or cooked while green due to the starch levels. In some African regions, the plantain can be reduced to flour or for beer-making. However, in many instances an encounter with plantains is usually in fried form.