Puso ng Saging (Banana Heart/Blossom)

Puso ng saging or banana heart/blossom is used as a vegetable in Filipino cuisine. Usually red violet in color, puso ng saging has bracts with fleshy portions. Aside from being an ingredient of kare-kare (ox tripe stew cooked in coconut and peanut sauce), puso ng saging can also be sauteed with sliced squid.

In folklore, a potion that provides special powers to the one who drinks it is said to drip from the tip of the puso ng saging at midnight. One such depiction of this belief can be seen in the 1989 film She-Man: Mistress of the Universe. 

A recent reference to puso ng saging can be watched in a scene in the 2006 film Apoy sa Dibdib ng Samar starring Mark Lapid. In a scene where Lapid's character is held by the henchmen of the lead villain (Dick Israel), he said the line, "Oo, inaamin ko ... Saging lang kami! Pero maghanap ka ng puno sa buong Pilipinas, saging lang ang may puso! Saging lang ang may puso!"

Translation to English, "Yes, I admit ... We are just bananas! But when you seek all the trees in the Philippines, only the banana has a heart! Only the banana has a heart!" (The banana plant, however, is not a tree considering that the main or upright stem is actually a pseudostem.)

Following is YouTube user deyey's video of the movie clip: