His focus remains the same: making the best tamale possible. Originally intended to supplement their income, it has become a full-time endeavor for Matt, who works as many as ninety hours per week. Now operated by Matt and three employees, including his sister, the quality has remained the same, but much has changed in those two years. The business, formed two years ago by friends Chris Watson and Matt Miller has been devoted to serving only the best to their customers from the beginning. The taste doesn’t lie: they are spectacular. Made from organic, non-GMO ingredients, the tamales are of the highest quality ingredients. Many of you have enjoyed the tactile pleasure of unwrapping a small taste of heaven purchased from the Good Golly Tamale food cart. Central Street, Knoxville, September 2015 This is culinary history, one of the tastiest kinds around.Good Golly Tamale, 112 S. It's just that I always love food-related family traditions doing things in a way that takes longer but tastes better, cooking cultural dishes that summon up countless memories, everyone gathering around a table to prepare a recipe that’s been passed down for generations. I run around trying to snap photos of each step in the process, and my host family thinks I’m crazy for my persistence in documenting these types of food events they take for granted. The tamales cook in a pot of boiling water, and when we scoop them out they look like small bundles of excellence. The assembly line involved dolloping the porridge-like masa onto a banana leaf, adding the fillings, folding it up with the special tactics of origami masters, and then binding it with twine. My host mom had prepared the fillings: carrots, potatoes, spiced rice, bell pepper, and some kind of strip meat (except for in the vegetarian tamales). And the tamales are going to be salted anyways, so it’s okay if a little sweat drips in.įor those who haven't had a tamale before, it is somewhat of a delicious steamed dumpling/burrito hybrid. The grinding is hard work, though! A good arm workout. “We” is a bit of a stretch, since I only tag-teamed in for two rounds of the four kilograms of corn. Yesterday, we made the masa (dough) from scratch, by soaking whole kernels of corn and then grinding them in a machine descriptively named la maquina (“the machine”). Hard-core people, I should say, because tamale-making is no simple endeavor. In Costa Rica, tradition dictates tamales for la Navidad (Christmas) and Semana Santa (Easter Week), but people also make it for other special events. There is also a strong tradition of 'dropping by' the house of a family member or friend, and then staying for coffee and chatting.
Usually, it begins with early morning pounding on the door, and then cousin after cousin pouring in, arms laden with cabbages and bags of rice.
I've already gotten to experience a few of these large-scale family-oriented events, and they're wonderful. This coming Sunday is a combined birthday celebration for my host grandpa, sister, and two uncles, and so the occasion calls for the preparation of over a hundred tamales. Thinking it is but a dream, I stagger back to bed for an hour or so, until the unmistakable smell of corn wafts under my door. and the tamale assembly line is already underway.
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