Guatemala City Travel Forum

what kinds of food dishes are made in christmas its that my girl friend is from guatemala and i would like to make a special dish for her

How is it going David: The people in guatemala eat the traditional tamal every day from noche buena til after new years day. The thing is that even if you had the recipe is like anything else. Is not just a matter of having the recipe but knowing exactly how you do it. We normally use the corn leaves or banana leaves. The guatemalan tamal is different than mexican tamal and the rest of central american tamales. But of course I am a guy and not exactly a chef and I might be wrong. But that's how I see it. Why don't you surprise her by going to a guatemalan place and try to buy some good tamales already made. So that that you won't go wrong. I made many friends from Puerto Rico in my 25 years in the US Army. Felicidades en estas navidades. You should be thinking about having the wedding in antigua.

Yes, it looks like a venezuelan allaca with some of the same ingredients too. I know the venezuelan allacas too because I was assigned to the US military advisory group in caracas for about six years.The venezuelan allacas which I enjoyed very much, is more similar to what we in guatemala call "pache" which is another kind of tamal but, we use potatoes for the masa. I don't know how you can try to duplicate something that you haven't even tried before. In my opinion, once you get the masa (dough) with the right consistency and taste, then everything else should be easy to add and wrap for a final product. Merry x-mas.