Guatamalan Tamales

[Ilaine]

(Not sure if this is the right forum, if not, please move it.)

A Guatemala style tamale is more tender than other tamales because it has rice flour mixed in with the masa, it's thicker and wider, and wrapped in a banana leaf, not a corn husk.

The only place I know where to get one is a gas station somewhere between Manassas Park and Manassas, but I think they're just a lunch thing there.

Surely there must be other places which sell Guatemala style tamales?

[Rieux]

Corrado's in Mt. Pleasant is Guatemalan. You might try calling them.

[MC Horoscope]

That sounds like Samantha's in Silver Spring near Langley Park. (Could that be Salvadoran style too?) Give them a call for details.

[zoramargolis]

I have seen them at Latin markets on Columbia Pike. I imagine other Latin markets in the 'burbs will have them, as well. Guatemalan and Salvadoran tamales are similar, in that the masa is cooked on a stovetop prior to assembling the tamale in the wrapper, which is then steamed, as opposed to Mexican style, where the masa is steamed in the wrapper, and is not pre-cooked. The consistency is quite different.

[MC Horoscope]

Not sure Samantha's has was you want. Though their tamales are quite soft and moist, and very tasty, they are made with masa, not a mix of masa and rice flour. But they ARE steamed in banana leaves and seem to me to differ from Mexican tamales. Apparently there's a wide variety of Guatemalan tamales, including sweet ones, according to the Salvadoran waitress I talked to at Samantha's today while I enjoyed their chicken tamale!

[Ilaine]

I found a pretty good one very close to my office, El Rancho bakery on Hechinger Drive in Springfield, in the same strip mall as El Grande and next door to Gamasot, which is now closed.

I had one Monday after work, and thought it suffered a little from too much time on the steamer, so went back Tuesday at lunch, and it was much better.  I got a pork one both times, not on the menu board, and thought the pork much superior to the often-iffy chicken one typically finds in these tamales, which can contain bits of broken bone.  No broken bone in the pork.  Corn and pork are a platonic couple.

The counterman said they make them every day, so I assume they would be even better in the morning.

Not as good as the ones at the gas station between Manassas Park and Manassas, but sufficiently satisfactory that i don't feel like driving to Manassas, nor Silver Spring, just for a Guatemala style tamale.  I WOULD drive a long distance for a tamale like they make in the Deep South, e.g., New Orleans, or Greenville, MS (Doe's Eat Place), but that's an entirely different animal, tightly wrapped in paper or corn husk, highly seasoned, submerged in a chili-redolent sauce.

But, you know what, after I had a Delta tamale fix, I'd probably go back to the Guatemala style.  The masa is just unctuous.  The green banana leaf adds a grassy goodness.