Tico Christmas Traditions

If you are lucky enough to be in Costa Rica for the Christmas holidays, then I highly suggest that you “do as the Ticos do!”.  The entire month of December is filled with fiestas, food, and fun!  Speaking of food, the most popular comida navideña, or Christmas food, is hands down the tamal.  A tamal is a traditional dish made of masa (a starchy corn dough) with vegetables and/or meat and then steamed all together wrapped up nice and tight in a plantain leaf.  It may seem like there’s nothing to it, but the entire process takes a full day of pain-staking preparation and cooking to get the most traditional result.

Would you like to give it a shot yourself?  Follow the step-by-step guide on how to make some tasty, typical Costa Rican tamales.  A piece of advice: you may want to start practicing now so that by the time the 25^th rolls around, you will have perfected the intricate art of the Costa Rican tamal!  Suerte, good luck!