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Yet another parallel between Akha and Mexican cultures, these little delicacies reminded me of the tamales my mother makes for special days like X-mas or New Year. And there is just about as much preparation involved. The mixture that goes inside the broad leaf of a banana-like tree is like the haw-nyaw (sticky rice) you see on the Ricecakes page of this gallery, except the preparation is a little different. The rice is soaked in water for about 30 minutes, then drawn from the water and dried in the sun for about 20 minutes. After it is dried, it is ground into a powder and mixed with water and sugar, then spread into the leaf, and steamed for about an hour. After all that, you can then eat this sweet little treat called haw-nyaw tiew.

Tamales

Tamales 2

Here, a group of teenagers and children are doing the spreading, much like I spread the corn meal mixture into corn leaves to make tamales as a child. You can see that this is a group activity, and they seem to be doing it as they would a game--enjoying it just as much.

Tamales 3

An Akha X-mas Working | Ricecakes | Piñata | Tamales | Musician | Feast
Church | Dancing | My Favorites | X-mas Gift

An Akha X-mas Main
The Thailand Galleries Main

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