Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

tamales de dulce

English translation:

sweet tamales

Added to glossary by Esperanza González
May 9, 2011 20:42
13 yrs ago
2 viewers *
Spanish term

tamales de dulce

Spanish to English Other Cooking / Culinary Mexican regional cuisine
description of dishes prepared by a woman street vendor in Ocosingo. More specifically, the woman is one of the indigenous Tzeltal, from Sivacá. Please note that the tamales eaten by, say, my in-laws from Colombia are very different from what we here in California know as tamales.

So, I'm trying to be as specific/visually descriptive as possible. For example, most tamales I've eaten are wrapped in what looks like cooked corn husk with vertical ridges. Hence, "de hoja" is not immediately clear to me, visually. Is "bola" a kind of "masa" paste? Same goes for "dulce". I mean, what KIND of sweets are typically used to fill tamales from that part of the world?

"de guaán, de mumo, de chipilín" I have no clue about; but then they say food terms and botanical terms are among the trickiest to translate. People normally just don't have the vocab.

If it's easier to explain the Equivalent in Spanish, please feel free to do so.

Thanks in advance.
Proposed translations (English)
5 +8 sweet tamales
Change log

May 16, 2011 20:56: Esperanza González Created KOG entry

Discussion

Henry Hinds May 10, 2011:
Normal Practice From all I have seen, normal practice is not to translate such names at all, but leave them in the original Spanish and let people try them out. Thus, in order to do the job right, your client really needs to send you down there to check it all out in person! Of course we have "tamales de dulce" (sweet tamales is fine)here on the border, but they are likely to be different. Also, in some places way down south they often use banana leaves for tamales, not the corn husks as in the north.
offset (asker) May 10, 2011:
"sweet tamales" sounds good. Maybe I'll supply an explanatory footnote with a couple of examples of typical fruits used; that way, the editors can either use it or discard it as they see fit. BTW, I've always wanted to visit Guatemala and venture deeper into Mexico. Have heard marvelous things about Palenque, etc.

Proposed translations

+8
21 mins
Selected

sweet tamales

The filling can be of pineapple, raisins, guava, etc. They are delicious!
Peer comment(s):

agree Lourdes Sanchez
4 mins
¡Gracias!
agree Mirtha Grotewold
19 mins
¡Gracias!
agree Robert Copeland
1 hr
¡Gracias!
agree Aradai Pardo Martínez
2 hrs
¡Gracias, Aradai!
agree Alistair Ian Spearing Ortiz
10 hrs
¡Gracias y que tengas un lindo día!
agree Isamar
10 hrs
¡Mil gracias!
agree Cristina Talavera
11 hrs
¡Gracias y ten un lindo día!
agree Simon Davies : a lot of bilingual recipe websites use "tamales"
18 hrs
¡Gracias, Simon!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "«The filling can be of pineapple, raisins, guava, etc.» That's the answer I was looking for. I may drop a footnote for additional clarification. Thanks, all."
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