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Tamales Research Paper

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Tamales are Full of Surprises I come from a Mexican family that never forgets about their traditions and foods. My sisters and I grew up with my parents always cooking Mexican food for the holidays, but when my cousin married a Guatemalan lady, Virginia, she introduced us to her food. When we first tried her tamales we didn't really know what to expect. I guess since I was used to my mom's tamales I expected them to taste the same. Well, I was wrong. To begin with the Guatemalan were a lot smaller than the tamales I was used to. Tasting the Guatemalan tamales was a moment I would call life changing because that's when I realized that even though their food and ours have similar names they won't all be the same. Every food that …show more content…

That was also the first Christmas we had spent with my cousin’s new wife. She is from Guatemala and decided to bring her tamales because she knew none of us had Guatemalan food for Christmas. My family and I had never had Guatemalan food in our lives. Virginia, however had tried Mexican food because she had been dating my cousin for a while and he had introduced her around to Mexican foods. Since she had come over multiple times to have dinner with us, she was used to my family's version of Mexican food as well. When she arrived with her tamales wrapped in a strange green leaf, I was kind of scared as what could possibly be inside. When I opened to see what was inside the leaf, it looked almost exactly the same as our tamales. It didn’t taste the same. When I took my first bite into the tamale it was very dull. It reminded me of being bored in detention. The tamale consisted more of masa (corn flour) then the actual meat and filling that go inside. I personally am not of fan of masa, I like my tamales to have more …show more content…

I was personally a bit shocked. They aren’t accustomed to making them with the meats and salsa that Mexicans add to our tamales. She told us that what is normal for us is weird for her. When she first tried Mexican tamales, she thought that they were too spicy for her to actually enjoy them but the more she ate them she started to actually like them. Most Mexican dishes are known for their spiciness. Nothing tastes good if you don’t add something spicy, well that happens with the tamales as well. They won't be half as delicious if they weren’t spicy. I really like when my mom makes spicy tamales, Virginia's tamales only had chicken and a bit of salsa verde (green salsa), which was barely noticeable. It felt pretty plain and I didn’t really enjoy it. It became one of the foods that I probably won’t ever eat again, unless it had something more than just chicken and less masa. I am always willing to try new food but something with flavor. Something that I can make the food memorable. I always like to have the food leave an impression on me. This tamale was really plain. It had no taste to it. It gave me this feeling of boredom. It looked white maybe even a yellow kind of color, shaped in a small square. It was wrapped around with a green leaf that she said comes from bananas or something. It was tied with a small piece of the leaf to secure it while it cooked so that it can hold everything inside and not

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