Jose Mier Gastronomy Celebrates Another Mexican World Favorite
So yes, after taking a short break here I am writing about another the top 100 foods in all the world and again a food from Mexico. Now Jose Mier Gastronomy is an equal opportunity blog. Can I help it if so many of the most popular dishes in the world come from Mexico? I have to admit a little bit of pride since my heritage is Mexican and tamales are one of the dishes we made quite often—or rather my mother made.
First off, I have to say that the word tamales is plural for the Spanish word tamal. Really there is no E on the end but we here in the United States have anglicized it and made tamale singular. Okay, I got that out of the way. If you been hiding under a rock and don’t know what a tamale is this is the soft ingredients filled dish using masa as the base. Masa is a think corn meal that makes for a soft chewy outer portion of the tamale. It’s filled traditionally with chicken pork or even sweet feelings like jams. The tamales are shaped and wrapped in cornhusks and then steamed. This is always a traditional Christmas dish in my family and I remember watching my mom prepare these—dozens of them—around Christmas time.
Many people are turned off by the thought of making their own tamales because it’s always been touted as so labor-intensive, but really it only takes a couple hours and you’ll have dozens of tamales to enjoy yourself for give to friends. The recipe on gimmesomeoven.com is a pretty good one in the author echoes my sentiments that it really isn’t so difficult to make your own delicious tamales.
If you don’t have the time or don’t want to spend time to create your own then finding a local Mexican restaurant in your area is an option. For me in Sun Valley, California, we’re blessed with a high Latino population so it’s not difficult for me to find several places that make tamales. One of my favorites is Tamales y Jugos Naturales on the corner of Fair Avenue & Sherman Way, Sun Valley, CA 91352. There’re only to happy to see my smiling face show up since they know I’m going to be ordering several dozen tamales. The holidays are fast approaching so I suggest doing this if you’ve never done it before and making tamale creation part of your new Christmas ritual.
