At my home, we have never bought Banana flower from the market. We had banana trees planted and every time it flourishes, every part of it would take the shape of a dish. Few bananas would be kept apart to ripen, while others go into making of chips, stir frys , kalan etc. There were dishes made out of the raw banana peel and also the banana stem. Oh and how can I forget the extracting of honey from underneath the banana flower petals. I used to love it. In short, maximum utilization of having a banana tree at home.
However, now when I buy banana flower from market, I always think how good were those days when we used to have those organic food from our own vegetable garden. My mom laughed at me when I proudly told her that we got hold of some banana leaf(torn and sad looking) and bought it to make Meen pollichathu.