TAMALE town
Immigrant spreads the gospel of Mexican staple in a city that has grown obsessed with them
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, a group of women gathered around a stainless-steel work table inside the large, well-lit kitchen at The Tamale Store.
❚ The women smeared masa (corn dough) onto supple, flattened-out corn husk wrappers. They heaped generous spoonfuls of red chile beef guisos (braised stew) onto the dough, agilely folding over the edges of the husk to wrap up the dough and meat into neat half-pound tamales.
Tamale making is notoriously time-consuming, inspiring many professional tamale shops to rely on industrial-grade machinery to save time and ramp up production, especially around the busy holiday season.
But you won’t find any fancy machinery at The Tamale Store, a northeast Phoenix Mexican restaurant. The kitchen runs on good old-fashioned elbow grease.
Martha Castillo, the friendly co-owner and head tamale chef at the restaurant, wouldn’t have it any other way.
Tamales deserve special care and attention, Castillo says, because they are “the most beautiful part of the Mexican cuisine.”
A tamale obsession
A native of Mexico City, Castillo became obsessed with tamales at an early age.
“I grew up eating tamales almost every day because I loved them so much,” Castillo said. “Every morning, close to my house there was a vendor of tamales. I walked there every day to eat tamales for breakfast. Every day.”
Castillo studied to become a school teacher, but when she and her ex-husband moved to the United States 30 years ago, they decided to start their own business.
The couple launched a catering business, cooking and serving an assortment of traditional Mexican dishes. Eventually, Castillo decided to focus all her efforts on her first love: tamales.
“I wanted to base my business in tamales. I said, ‘I don’t want to make tacos. I don’t want to make quesadillas.’ Nothing like that. I just want to make tamales.”
Castillo spent years perfecting her masa, constantly testing out new recipes and soliciting feedback from her four children.
“It was like a passion. My kids would say, ‘Oh mom, you’re obsessed with tamales.’ And I said, ‘Yes!’
“It took me like three years to play with the idea and the recipes and all the ingredients to put in my tamales. Because I want to make tamales more modern, with more and different ingredients,” Castillo said.
Growing popularity
Her tamales quickly became a hit on the farmers market circuit in Phoenix. In 2008, the family opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant in a small storefront.
In August, 10 years later, the restaurant moved into a new, larger space near Cave Creek Road and Greenway Parkway that boasts an expanded dining room, in-house mercado (marketplace) and bigger kitchen.
Here, Castillo and her family continue to spread the gospel of tamales in a city that has firmly embraced this Mexican staple. Phoenix has an annual festival devoted to tamales — the Food City Tamale Festival — and a growing number of businesses trying to keep up with demand for both traditional and “gourmet” varieties.
Over the years, The Tamale Store has developed a legion of loyal customers, and Castillo makes new fans every day.
Recently, Zac Maestas and his father, Peter, stopped by The Tamale Store for lunch. It was their first time eating Castillo’s tamales.
Their verdict: These were some of the best tamales they’ve ever tasted. Where other tamales are dry and crumbly, Castillos tamales, were notably “soft” and “kind of melt in your mouth,” Zac said.
“They were super good — some of the best, and well worth the money,” he said of the tamales, which sells for $3.99 apiece.
Notebooks full of recipes
Castillo runs The Tamale Store with her three daughters and college-age son. She is constantly adding to the restaurant’s inventory of tamale recipes.
Pauline Pimienta, one of Castillo’s daughter, shared that her mother keeps detailed recipe notes in a growing library of notebooks.
“My mom never gets tired of making tamales and coming up with new recipes,” Pimienta said. “She literally has a notebook by her bed, in her purse, in her car, in her kitchen — and probably in many places she hasn’t confessed to.
“My siblings and I call these notebooks her ‘milliondollar’ notebooks, because each one has incredible ideas,” Pimienta added.
Eventually, the family hopes to consolidate Castillo’s recipes into a cookbook.
Some of the most unique tamales that Castillo has produced over the years include:
❚ The Arizona tamale, a corn bread-like tamale made with Colby cheese and jalapeños blended into the masa.
❚ Red velvet tamale, filled with cream cheese.
❚ The Christmas tamale, made with ground beef, dried fruits, almonds and cheese.
“I have a lot of crazy ideas, and I’m always thinking of new ideas,” Castillo laughed.
12,000 tamales a week
During the holidays — the high season for professional tamale makers across Mexico and the American Southwest — Castillo estimates she and her team of about 20 employees produce around 12,000 tamales a week.
Some of the restaurant’s bestsellers include green corn and cream cheese, chicken green chile and beef red chile tamales.
Customers can order freshly steamed tamales and enjoy them in the dining room, which is decorated with colorful Mexican murals and motifs, or grab a dozen frozen tamales from the marketplace to take home and enjoy later. Frozen tamales can keep for up