ATDTDA (17): atole con el dedo

[Michael Lee Bailey]

babelfish says "atole" is a "corn flour drink" and "dedo" is finger
"drink with the finger"?

Like Mork from Ork?

further instance from a news article online:
Mismo atole con el mismo dedo
"the same beverage with the same fingers?"
referring to (it looks like) some promised public 
electric utility reform

also ---
http://es.geocities.com/ciudaddelaesperanza/Expresiones.html
(but the link keeps timing out, so all I can get is the search engine lead-in)
"Dar a alguien atole con el dedo. 
Darle sólo unas cuantas gotas de lo que desea, pero haciéndole sentir que está logrando lo que ansía. Engañarlo ofreciendo o prometiendo lo que se sabe no podrá ..."

that would be something like "to give to somebody atole
con el dedo: to give them just a little bit of what they
desire, but making them feel as if they are getting that 
which they (?oansia?).  Offering or promising that which
they can't really give...

sorry, have become fascinated with this phrase.  Will continue to search.

As to the significance: if it were Frank's memory, it'd be
easy to grasp - his recent trip to Mexico infusing childhood 
memories with a new light (travel is broadening)

Lake may have had contact with Mexicans in her brothel days,
or less luridly, simply in everyday life.

Or is it even an internal-to-the-scene comparison, meant to
be imputed to Lake?  Maybe it's a narratorial comparison.
TRP was in the Spanish club in school and lived
in Mexico for awhile.  Maybe there is something abut the
phrase and gesture that makes it fitting for a memory
inside a dream.  (memories and dreams being tantalizing,
sometimes, in that exact way, come to think of it)