Navigate Messages: by Date - in Thread
Main Index - Date Index - Thread Index
 

Re: [ranchos] Tamales de Zarzamora

 
Over ten years ago when I accompanied my uncle (my dad's first cousin Arturo Hernandez Lozano) to Michoacan, we made a short pit stop in Zacapu, Mich. While at a roadside tamalera, we noticed two women speaking in a strange language we later discovered was Purhechepa (or as they said Tarasco).  But we bought several smaller than normal tamales.  When I opened them I was shocked because they were pink.  I gave my uncle a weird look and asked him, "!Que es esto!"  He just told me, "Nomas pruebalo."  Well being very open minded about food and eating, one of my favorite activities, I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious they truly were.  They were sweet and tasted like strawberries.  Different than my mom's world famous "tamales de dulce" which she makes with sugar, pineapple, and raisins.  Oh, delicious memories of Christmas.
 
Mi Tio Arturo told me they were called "tamales de Zarzamora" which are a wild variety of raspberries or blackberries.  I'm guessing they were more like raspberries to make the nixtamal masa look pink.  My uncle Arturo bought a bunch of them to take back to the family in Ocotlan, Jalisco.  Good thing...I couldn't resist to have another one on the trip back.
 
Has anybody ever heard of tamales de zarzamora?  Are they just unique to northwestern Michoacan?
 
Steven H.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: latina1955@...
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, 25 Jun 2005 14:10:14 EDT
Subject: Re: [ranchos] Tamales

Linda,
 
As a side note, Mexico is not considered 3rd world.  In fact, Mexico is probably the most economically progressive Latin American country.  While I am not an expert in economic classification, I have traveled to various countries in Africa which were true 3rd word applications were provided - and the difference from these countries and Mexico were enormous!  Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can expound on this...??
 
In Michoacan, I think I had those tamales - they were called tamales ochepos (spelling is phonetic)- certainly not the dulce tamales that I was accustomed to here in the states - we were provided these tamales for breakfast, and they were divine, but I didn't know they were made of corn oil - now you might have answered my question about lard.....Maybe I should try using corn oil instead of lard to make them?  Any recipes out there?
 
Esperanza
 
Esperanza

YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS