Plantains are a type banana that are usually used for cooking, unlike sweet bananas. Plantains  tend to be firmer and lower in sugar content than bananas, and are commonly used when green or underripe and are therefore starchy.

Ripe plantains can be eaten raw, or they can cooked in a variety of ways. As the plantain ripens, its color changes from green to yellow and eventually to black, juts lik the banana.

 Green plantains are firm and starchy, and resemble potatoes in flavor. Yellow plantains are softer and starchy, but sweet. Extremely ripe plantains are black, with a softer, deep yellow pulp that is very sweet.  In fact the riper the plantain is, the sweeter it becomes. .

Ripe plantain is used as food for infants at weaning: it is mashed with a pinch of salt and is believed to be more easily digestible than ripe banana.

There are a variety of ways to cook plantains, both the sweet and starchy kind. Fried plantains are the most common in the Dominican Republic, as well as boiled. The sweeter plaintains are at times baked in the oven with a stick of cinammon.