Ok call me nieve I have never had a Tamale. Can someone describe in detail what a Tamale is and how you make them. I like Mexican dishes such as Tacos and Burritos but have never had a Tamale.

Some areas make the tamales with corn husks, but others use banana leaves. Personally, I think the banana leaves make all the difference. I'll try to get together a tamale recipe and post it. Pasteles I consider even better, but there is A LOT of prep work involved in them.

I have a friend that makes delicious Vietnamese spring rolls. We made them once and it took about 8 hours to prep and cook them. But they were good. We haven't made them since though. Just thinking about tamales makes me think it's about the same level of effort.

Our Vietnamese friend would make several hundred spring rolls at a time, and freeze them so that she could eat them regularly. Sort of using the Henry Ford assembly line idea to make things efficient. Is that what you do with the Tamales?

This intrigues me, so I'm on a quest to see if I can find banana leaves, and a good tamale recipe.

Speaking of banana leaves, I read somewhere that Dennis Rodman was once given some dish wrapped with banana leaves at some dinner/press conference. The problem is, nobody told him that the leaves are actually NOT edible--so he ate the whole thing, banana leaves and all. Poor thing. He was reportedly mad as hell.