Food that go on the end of tooth picks

There will be at least one multi-cultural day at Xmas, with 4-6 language students from Mexico, Japan ETC'.

The main meal will be taken care of by some of the hosts, but that leaves the plates of Hors d'œuvres/appetizers.

So what are your favorite Mexican botanas, and will any go on a tooth pick?

There will be home made tamals (small ones hopefully)

will any go on a tooth pick?
I always take a tooth pick with me when I go out to eat.

These were very good "Devils on horse back" the tooth pick held it together.

Boil some papas cambray (small, new potatoes about 1" in dia) in salted water. Then saute them lightly in butter. Puree in blender some chipotle chiles in adobo. Add to spuds and saute until they are well coated with the sauce.

Fresh mushroom buttons filled with a glop of guacamole. Toothpicks can be used.

Some of the Mexican brands of coctail weenies are excellent. Good botanas, always, but perhaps not "Mexican" enough for foreigners.

Tough one. Most botanas are not terribly Mexican unless they're topped with chiles. Jicama, cucmber, and pineapple pieces on a platter with lemon juice and a sprinkling of mild chile powder would be very "Mexican" but they don't really scream out "Viva Mexico!"

Heavily Tex-Mex but check this out:

http://www.mexgrocer.com/mexican-recipes-appetizers.html

Little weenies with some hot dipping sauce in the middle of the platter.
Little weenies nestled in a melted oaxaca cheese glob on one of those tough corn chips that don't fall apart when you dip them.
This stuff always disappears fast.

Not a toothpick item, but a layered dip for tortilla chips that consists of layers of beans, spiced ground meat, grated cheese, sour cream, avocado (guacamole), etc. Serve with large chips because they will dig deep into those layers.

Feta cheese stuffed into jalapenos that have had the ends cut off and the seeds removed.

There was a plate of these on Sat' night.

Those penguinos are excellent. Very cute. Tere never ate black olives until I introduced them to her and now she loves them, never cared for the green ones.

We are going to make a plate of these for our Navidad party although we may have to visit a couple different stores to find the extra large ones we'll need.

Thanx

Just another word on those penguinos. I made a plate of them and they are going over big. Everybody loves them, perhaps too much. They think they are too cute to eat. But everybody loves them just the same.

As much as black olives are used in California-style Mexican food most of the people here have never tried black olives and only about half the supermarkets carry them. Green olives are more common here but many people do not like them for their saltiness, they need a little nudge to try the black ones but usually have a change of heart about olives after they do.

Black Greek olives were/are not very palatable when first tried, in a Greek salad.

But just noticed last week the "New" store in town has an olive island.

Large Calamata Olives.

Imported olives from Greece. Best known of the Greek olives, purple/black with a mild?, sharp flavor and characteristic pointed shape.