Market Stall · Plain Corn Tamal
Tamal Pisque
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Titaangie / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
It contains no filling, meat, or sauce at all — the whole point is to taste the corn itself, unmasked by anything else.
Dried corn masa, unsweetened and unfilled, is wrapped in a corn husk or plantain leaf and boiled until firm, then usually cut open and doused with cream or cheese at the table. Matagalpa's market cooks keep pots of them boiling for the morning trade.
Why it's made this way: The plain tamal is a signature of Nicaragua's northern coffee-growing highlands, where it traditionally served as portable, filling food for farm and coffee-harvest workers.
More from Nicaragua
Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
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