Tamales: a delicious Panamanian dish mostly made of corn. Although renowned, you can't get these puppies in a restaurant, because they take over 2 hours to make. And, for the same reason, you can't buy them in the grocery store. So, where do you get Tamales??? Well, apparently, there is usually a scary-greasy guy that sells them home-made out of a bucket on the street corner. He usually doesn't have a license to sell them...So the transaction is strikingly similar to a drug deal. Ours went something like this...
Tom and I are looking around a bit lost, then start staring right a man sitting on a bucket. I whisper to Tom "Do you think that's the guy we are looking for?"
The man, looking straight back at us: "Tamales?"
Us: "Yes!"
The man, in a more hushed Spanish voice: "$1.25 for 2."
Us: "$1.25 for 2?!? No way, $1 for 2"
The man, staring in all seriousness "$1.25 for 2."
Us: "Alright, here's a $1.25 then. We'll take two."
We slip him the cash, he reaches into his bucket and pulls out a little baggy with 2 green steaming rolls inside.
We split.
This, is Tamales.
6 comments:
Maybe it's better in person.
Believe it or not, banana-leaf-wrapped corn mush *is* really really good!
Seriously, you should have some sort of a warning at the beginning of your post. No fair talking to a really hungry pregnant chick about greasy greasy steamy hot food.
Does it taste like cream corn??
Sort of, but less sweet. More savory, salty. And it has a bit of a beef/chicken broth taste. Maybe if you blended corn to a paste, and added a package of ichiban spice and a little bacon fat, you'd come close. I'm sure Candice could describe it better!
No, I think that pretty much sums it up!
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