Tamales and hallacas are pretty similar. The stew used to fill the hallaca dough must have pork, capers, olives, raisins, wine, and annatto oil (achiote oil). Other than that, there are variations from region to region in Venezuela, and even from one house to another. I love tamales; tamal is simpler and more versatile in terms of what you can put in the filling; they're also usually smaller than an hallaca. An average hallaca has 90 grams of dough and 150 grams of filling, which makes a total of 240 grams approx. I think a tamale weighs, perhaps, half of that? I'm not sure. Also, hallaca has so much flavor, that no one would ever think of adding sauces of any kind to it; in fact, it'd could be considered offensive to add sauces to an hallaca because in doing this, you'd be telling your host that it didn't turn out very well.

Homemade sugar cane honey is nothing more than a syrup that we make by melting a piloncillo in water and letting it cook until it becomes the consistency of honey, resembling molasses. This is a complex issue as what they call molasses, "melaza" in Spanish is not actual molasses as we know it in the countryside where producers make molasses and piloncillo.

Thank you so much for dropping by, awesome @nickydee. I hope my attempt of explanation helped you a little.

A new year has begun. I hope it brings good things for you and your little one ❤️