Atole / Champurrado / Salep

[Benjamin Barrett]

I didn't find these in the ADS archives and thought they might be of
interest. I have to go on a hunting trip to find mixes and the raw
ingredients for these drinks.

It sounds like they are somewhere between a hot chocolate and a more
starchy consistency.

As per Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atole), atole (Mex. Sp.
from from Nahuatl atolli also known as atol) is made from "masa (corn
meal), water, piloncillo, cinnamon, vanilla and optional chocolate or
fruit". Champurrado
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champurrado_%28beverage%29) has chocolate
in it. Not sure if there's a difference between atole with chocolate and
champurrado.

A 31-year-old friend of mine from San Diego describes having this as a
child. He knew it as sachlab as his mother was raised in the Middle East
and/or Egypt. He recalls eating it with a spoon.

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Sachlab seems to be a variant of "salep/saleb", defined at
http://dict.die.net/saleb/ as "Salep \Sal"ep\ (s[a^]l"[e^]p), n. [Ar.
sahleb, perhaps a corruption of an Arabic word for fox, one Ar. name of
the orchis signifying literally, fox's testicles: cf. F. salep.]
[Written also saleb, salop, and saloop.] The dried tubers of various
species of Orchis, and Eulophia. It is used to make a nutritious
beverage by treating the powdered preparation with hot water.

It is also defined similarly at http://www.drwords.com/define/salep.

At
http://morselsandmusings.blogspot.com/2006/08/sahlep-salep-sahlab.html,
it's given as a Turkish winter drink spelled "sahlep".
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Benjamin Barrett
a cyberbreath for language life
livinglanguages.wordpress.com

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