Monday, April 23, 2007

Differences in Acceptable Cuisine

As we were relaxing in the shade, taking in the blueness of the Caribbean Sea we saw a local guy riding by on a bike with a large cooler strapped to the front of his cycle. As he passed, he yelled out "Hot tamales!" We quickly whistled to get his attention and inquired about what kind they were. "Chicken" he responded. We hadn't eaten lunch and this sounded like the perfect solution. We each got one, pleased to see that they were of a nice size. Grease leaked out as we pulled back the tin foil...usually a good sign. Instead of a corn husk, the tamales were wrapped in a large, green banana leaf. Normally I would have pried the tamale open to look inside to make sure the insides contained nothing unsavory, but decided to live on the edge and just take a bite. Not bad. With my second mouthful however, I bit down on something hard. It was a bone, but not wanting to make a big deal about it, I slyly took it out of my mouth and threw it on the ground. Just a fluke, I thought.

Then, Kevin got a bone too. I knew it was time to go with my first instinct and inspect the innards. I pulled the tamale apart and found a gigantic, full size chicken breast bone nestled inside ever so neatly.

Needless to say, that was the end of THAT gag-reflex-begging nastiness. We were amazed that someone would actually make and sell tamales with almost half the chicken skeleton included. Maybe the guy knew that he could get his money and be out of there before we bit down on the first crunch. No wonder he rode off so fast.

3 comments:

robert said...

ewww....i hope this doesn't mean you don't try the tamales in other places though. i love the central american tamale, because it is bigger and has more stuff in it than the mexican variety.

Tracey Clem said...

James, living on the edge, indeed! I'm so proud! :)

I finally had some time to kick back on the couch and read through your last few adventures on the mainland. The pictures are fantastic, and I'm sure can't even compare with the real thing.

Give Randy our love, and a big belated Birthday hug from us! I'm so sorry we missed it...I had no idea! It's on the calendar now, for sure. :)

Love reading about all you're getting to see and do!

Hugs!
Trace

w said...

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