Tamales bring Central American taste to Waterloo region

For "The Tamale Girl" Kathy Hanshaw, tamales are a "wonderful accident" as a nearly perfect food – and one that has seen increased popularity in terms of her sales over the past couple of years.

The St. Jacobs Market food vendor says that tamales satisfy a wide range of diet requirements, from vegans to those seeking gluten-free foods or needing to avoid lactose.

"Tamales can hit these specialty categories. You don't have to add dairy and you can keep gluten out. The corn-husk wrappers that tamales are cooked in are compostable too," Hanshaw says.

She's had her food stand at the market for about two years now, and in that time she's seen sales increase by about 25 per cent from when she started.

Hanshaw, who says her mother is Mexican, estimates that her customer base is made up of only about five percent of people who are familiar with tamales and may have Hispanic or South American heritage. "About 95 percent of my customers are not familiar with tamales, but once they have them, they love them."

She attributes the growth to curious customers willing to try new foods and Food Network television, which has helped customers become more familiar with the compact foodstuff.

Tamale's  Aztec roots 

A tamale is a food found in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and surrounding countries. Importantly, it's a pre-Columbian indigenous peoples' invention and was not introduced by the invading Spanish. The word tamale is derived from tamalli, meaning "wrapped up" in Aztecan languages.

A corn flour dough called Masa is prepared and then mixed with meats and vegetables, seasoned and then wrapped tightly in a corn husk that makes it about the size of a hot dog and bun. It gets steamed, you unwrap it and eat using spoon or fork. The moist filling can sometimes have a soft, cake-like texture.

Tamales in and around Waterloo region range in price from $3.50 to $5. Hanshaw makes a vegan tamale with corn and black beans.

There has been no modern reformulation of tamales, according to Hanshaw: How tamales were made 5,000 years ago is essentially how they are made today. From region to region, from Texas and Mexico to Puerto Rico and Cuba, she says everyone does them slightly differently.

She sells her Mexican tamales to eat right there at the market stand or frozen to be heated up at home. "Over the course of three days, I will make 350 to 550 tamales," Hanshaw says. "They are protein-rich, flavourful and hearty."

National differences 

Co-owners of Pupuseria Latinos in downtown Kitchener, Andres and Blanca Guerrero, have also seen tamales grow in popularity. They make dozens of tamales a week: theirs are a Salvadoran version stuffed with chicken and potato, seasoned with paprika and wrapped in a banana leaf rather than corn husk. At Christmas time, Blanca will make tamales with cinnamon and raisins.

Elsewhere, Kitchener's The Guanaquita Restaurant prepares a few different Salvadoran tamales, as does Latinoamerica Unida, a Mexican restaurant in Cambridge, and Cactus Mexican Restaurant in Waterloo.

In Uptown, Taco Farm will be preparing tamales with queso fresco cheese and poblano peppers as part of the restaurant's celebrations of "The Day of the Dead" on November 2, a Central American festival marking the remembrance of deceased relatives and friends.

At America Latina Grocery and Eatery in Kitchener, there are two kinds of tamale: the Salvadoran version is made with ingredients such as chicken and chickpeas wrapped in banana leaf, and the larger Guatemalan tamales packed with green olives, onions, garlic and red peppers. They are steamed for up to one hour and 45 minutes.

Tamales, according to Heidi Garcia of America Latina, can have nearly two dozen variations and can be eaten for breakfast, and along with coffee or hot chocolate.

"They can be a meal or antojitos, a snack for when you are just looking for something to eat," Garcia says.  

Godly dish

Tamales are both divine and humble — they were a food of the gods for ancient Aztecan peoples and today are a compact street food steamed in large pots called tamaleras that travellers can pack away as a self-contained meal that comes wrapped in its own plate.

Guerrero points out that preparing tamales is time consuming with a double-cooking process that can take up to two hours; with the labour involved, cooks will make dozens of tamales at a time to be re-heated later.

She stresses that although they take time and there are many different ways to make tamales, people familiar with the dish just love them.

"It's a lot of work in making tamales," Guerrero says. "But people love them for lunch or for dinner. It doesn't matter."