42 Fresh, Hot Chicken Tamales! By Krausz, Sigmund

To dive into the mysteries of a Chicken-tamale! Have you ever tried it? No? Well, you must.

It is the Ambrosia of our Mexican friend. Accompanied by pulque, which is his Nectar, it forms a meal which, in his imagination, the angels in heaven could enjoy.


Perhaps they could. But I am sure that to the average American at first trial a tamale seems more like a foretaste of that tropic climate, a graphic description of which has been given us by immortal Dante, than food for Cherubim and Seraphim.

And yet it is delicious, this mixture of chicken, olives, tomatoes, cornmeal and red pepper, if you once get used to it. Possibly you have to overcome a slight repugnance at the first trial, but this will be amply repaid by the wholesome effect of the tamale on your digestive organs and by-and-by you will be initiated into the toothsome mysteries of this steaming bundle of cornhusks. You will come to meditate over the insignificance of the peacock-brains and nightingaletongues of the sybarites of ancient Rome as compared to the gastronomic value of the Chicken-tamale, and you will become its proselyte.

The tamale-man or, more correct, the tamalero, is a new and interesting type on our thoroughfares; let us welcome his advent.

Long live the tamalero!


Dieses Kapitel ist Teil des Buches STREET TYPES GREAT AMERICAN CITIES