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Sue Kidd is the Lifestyle Editor at The News Tribune and the ringleader for the Food and Home&Garden sections. She has worked as a food journalist at Northwest newspapers since 1993, most recently as a food writer, editor and restaurant reviewer in King County before joining The News Tribune in 2004. Her food obsessions at the moment are honey, cheese and oysters.
Craig Sailor is the Arts&Entertainment editor at The News Tribune. He grew up on a garlic farm near Gilroy, Calif. and now farms oysters in his spare time at Willapa Bay. He’s traveled the world from Kyoto/Kuala Lumpur/Hong Kong to Zanzibar in search of great food.
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This song is fictional, but universally true. I wrote the lyrics and the tune. I asked Dave Barfield to sing it. He asked Bill Leach to play guitar. It's called "My Lady of Tamales." It's about tamales, and a lot more. Which is what tamales are really all about.
My Lady of Tamales
Written by Ed Murrieta
Vocals: Dave Barfield
Guitar: Bill Leach
© 2007 HGI Publishing
All rights are reserved. Duplication is strictly prohibited without permission of HGI Publishing
MY LADY OF TAMALES
© 2007 Ed MurrietaShe cooks every morning, each one made by hand
Tamales, tamales, made in her new land
Days on the corner, nights door to door
Selling tamales and giving her soul
2 for 2 dollars, best meal in town
Her red sauce is spicy, her mole's deep brown
Each holy bundle
Each little loving bite
TAMALES! TAMALES!
She's my saint tonightFrom Hermosillo, she took Joaquin's hand
An American dream, she cooks for him
Crossing the desert, she fed all the men
Tamales from home, the best they ever had
Now she nurses her babies alone in the van
She buried Joaquin's body in the hot coyote sand
Each holy bundle
Each little loving bite
TAMALES! TAMALES!
She's my saint tonightShe cooks like my Mama and looks like her too
I taste my Mama's kitchen, I'm her Mijo again
Cornmeal and lard, spice of her kiss
Hugged with a husk, an embrace that I miss
Each holy bundle
Each little loving bite
TAMALES! TAMALES!
She's my saint tonightMission, Olvera, the bars of Barrio Street
Tamales, tamales -- savory and sweet
Come closing time, she's fed every drunk
viejo, pachucho, priest, cop and punk
Golden corn and banana leaves steamed
Green olives chicken, black olives beef
Each holy bundle
Each little loving bite
TAMALES! TAMALES!
She's my saint tonight
PS: This song is not about Virginia Ramos, aka the Tamale Lady of San Francisco, although I have enjoyed her chicken tamales and the documentary that was made about her.
COMMENTS:
Your song sent me into my earliest memories. My mother, who disliked spicy food of any kind and never appreciated Mexican food, always wondered where my love of Mexican food, especially tamales, stemmed from. I always teased her by telling her that I had a Mexican grandmother. She did not know for many years that it was true.
I finally told her my memories of the kind old lady who lived next door to us in a Chula Vista (south of San Diego) housing project while my father was in the US Navy during and after WWII.
After breakfast I would go out to play while my mother fed my baby brother. I would sneak over the back fence to watch this tiny woman, not much taller than I, assemble tamales and steam them. She would make me a few tiny ones, since I was still pre-school age, and we would eat them right there. Even though we did not speak each other's language, I knew "mijo" was a term of endearment that she used as she let me try making these tasty bites.
We laughed and sang to each other, her songs in Spanish and my nursery songs in English. She would give me one grown-up size tamal to take with me and eat later as she shooed me out of the kitchen before I was missed at home.
Now, if I could just find the tender tamales of my memories, I would be in heaven. The ones at Vuelva a la Vida come the closest, especially when you get some right out of the steamer.
Ed:
Great story in the paper and post on this blog. Very thorough and detailed!
Tuddo:
Wonderful post as well. Thanks for sharing.
Having grown up in Buena Park in SO. CA. I too, have special memeories of these Holiday Family get togethers with my best friends family next door. It is a real happening and something I miss.
Now, thanks to the recipies Ed has supplied, the mystery has been unlocked and I will try them at home.
There is nothing like fresh homemade. I have mostly been disappointed with restauarnt offerings over the years, (especially in the northwest) but I will try out the recommendations in todays GO Section.
Good Tamales are a delicacy and a real treat. I encourage all on the blog to try them out!
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