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Learning to Make Tamales in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico
Today we’re going to be talking about traditional Mexican cooking class, learning how to make tamales in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Are you guys ready for an adventure? Let’s begin.
Learning how to make tamales in San Cristóbal de Las Casas
In San Cristobal, I decided to do a typical local cooking class, and I even signed up my husband and my twelve-year-old.
Tamales are one of the most local Chiapas San Cristobal de las Casas food, so it was really great to be able to actually cook them pretty much from scratch. So I’m personally vegetarian. My family wasn’t, and they ate the pork, but she made me a yummy one with one of the local cheeses that we bought in the Mercado Viejo.
Related Read: Sumidero Canyon Tour: Day Trip from San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico
Mercado Viejo
First of all, it started off with the woman taking us to Mercado Viejo, I have an entire podcast on that. You have to go to Mercado Viejo if you’re staying in San Cristobal de las Casas.
But the point is, she took us there to start to buy some of the local ingredients and to really show us around, such a great part of the whole cooking experience because you kind of understand where it’s coming from and the local ideas.
The Process
During the whole process of it, we were learning about the corn, the different chilies, how to make the tamales, and how to put them in. That was one part of it.
Honestly, the entire tour was about a four-and-a-half hour tour altogether, the experience, Because tamales, the making of them took a good hour, and then the cooking of them took another hour. But in the meantime, we were preparing other foods and making green tomato sauces.
Tamales with Moles
Then she also made a mole tamale for us. So, mole is one of the most traditional local sauces in Mexico. Overall, it is really something that is as traditional as you could possibly get with Mexican food.
And the thing is, with the mole, it takes a very long time to make, so she actually prepared that beforehand. So we didn’t learn that part of the cooking, but then we learned how to make tamales with the mole in them as well.
Sweet Tamales
She also made sweet tamales. And then she bought this fascinating dulce, and some fruits that are these sweets that are from Mexico, and they were fascinating.
Conclusion
My son and my husband were so into it, making these tamales and just the whole thing, honestly, one of the highlights of our trip, even though if I ask my son and my husband, hey, would you want to do a cooking class? They’re probably like, not so much, but when they were doing it, they loved it.
If you think that maybe it’s not for me, give it a shot. They’re usually not super expensive, so it’s pretty affordable to do. Plus you get to eat a huge meal and you get to really learn about the area. So one of the cool things was from the place where we met to where we were cooking to the market, we got to walk around some of San Cristobal de las Casas, and I have an entire podcast about what to do in San Cristobal.
One of the cool things is their street art. They have all these beautiful murals in that particular area going towards the Mercado Viejo and all this beautiful street art, so it was fun to even do the walk over there. Enjoy the time in the Mercado Viejo with somebody that really knows her way around. Just the overall experience.
So highly recommended. It’s probably something that we’re going to be doing every location we go to. That’s how amazing it was.
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