March on the beach. We love to stay in our favorite little cabin perched right on the beach.
We had come this time, to help our friend Zana prepare his puesto for the upcoming Semana Santa, Easter celebration, a very busy time in his humble beach cafe. When we found him, (accidentally) he was scouring our beloved little fishing village for banana leaves. "Are there any growing at Islandia?" he wanted to know. We set out back to the humble "resort" where we have stayed for more than 35 years to see if there were any, while he went to look elsewhere. An hour later we were at his house up north in Kino Nuevo. We came empty handed but he had done OK. We were ready to make Yucatan Tamales! We stripped the leaves from the stems and cut them to a usable, more or less plate, size while Zana worked on the masa. He had already cooked the meat mixture. He worked steadily but with some hesitance as his wife nagged.
This whole thing was being created from his rather vague childhood memories of helping his mother make the tamales. It has been a while, my friend is now 66 years old!
Masa for Yucatan style tamales is significantly different from the Sonoran style. We were
nearly as skeptical as his wife, although we didn't let on. He kept adding water and mixing
till the whole mess was liquid. He then went to the stove and cooked and stirred until the whole mess wasn't a liquid anymore. It worked! He spread a large spoonful on a banana leaf then
added some of his meat mixture. The leaf was then carefully folded round the filling and tied with strips of fiber torn from the stems. We all joined in and quickly made about a dozen of these mysterious treats. They were beautiful. The rich green and very authentic looking appearance was of that only seen in magazines or travelogues. This exotic dish was certainly not something we had thought would ever be able to experience. The Tamales were placed in a steamer for about one hour to cook. Now it's time for the test. We each sat down with a plated tamale and timidly took the first bite. Soon we all scarfed down our first tamale and went for another.
They were wonderful! They masa was light and creamy and the filling had just the right
amount of spice. The next day, I was fortunate to be asked to be "guest chef" at Mariscos Judy, on the beach in New Kino. I love this sort of bus man's holiday and enjoy the irony of being an illegal kitchen worker in Mexico. Our somewhat bizarre menu consisted of Corned Beef and Cabbage, (it was St Paddy's Day) Our Tamales Yucatan (unavailable anywhere else in town)
and later, Ceviche con Callos (fresh, fabulous Scallops) Tequila and Cervesas flowed all day long. This was going to be a good Semana Santa.
