The Anatomy of a Tamale

Happy Belated Mothers’ Day! Panamanian’s celebrate on December 8^th; probably to fill the gap between Independence celebrations throughout November and the Christmas holiday. I mean if you’re already celebrating, might as well keep the ball rolling.

I woke up at 6:30am, but Paulino, my current host dad, had already been up for two and a half hours grinding the corn and putting pots on the fire. Now that’s the kind of dedication I’m looking for with breakfast in bed!

Everyone had their jobs:

Mixing the salsa with the corn mush

Cutting banana leaves

Entertaining themselves (she's actually nice, just not photogenic!)

Tying straw together to hold the finished tamales together

I was assignedthe last job. And as much as I love tedious work right after I roll out of bed, all I could think was that it was nice we were doing all this cooking, but who made the coffee and where can I get some? Don’t worry, there really was coffee waiting!

Assemble from the bottom up. Faldo leaf on the outside. (Not exactly sure what this is.) Chunk of banana leaf on top of that. Pile of corn mush. Giso – cooked onions and seasonings with tomato sauce. Chicken!

Tie it up and then boil the finished product some more.

Unwrap and enjoy!! Mmmm nom nom!