"It is easy to find similarities between a few Guatemalan dishes and those of southeastern Mexico. Complex sauces like moles or recados, atoles, and ingredients like corn, beans, plantains, chiles, and tomatillos, speak to both a shared pre-Columbian territory and a colonial experience under Spanish rule. And although these cuisines may live side by side on the map and on this Albany Park establishment’s menu, they are different. Take the tamales, for example. Guatemalan-style chuchitos, a corn masa variety, are smoother, denser, and even drier than their Mexican counterparts. The meat is not diced or pulled, and instead, you will find they are stuffed with a whole chicken leg. But Xecul’s patrons rave about the rice tamales. Made with a ground rice masa, a very mild red sauce, pimento, olives, and raisins, this regional delicacy is wrapped in banana leaves. Their consistency is almost gelatin-like. The plate might at first be reminiscent of its Oaxacan cousin, but once you unwrap one, you will realize the similarity is only in presentation." - Brenda Storch
