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Michelle's Cafe draws the true tamale lovers

By Scott Calvert | scott.calvert@baltsun.com

January 4, 2009

A private chef in Washington had ordered 200 for his "very exclusive" New Year's Eve party. A California transplant living in Baltimore wanted a variety pack of 30 for her own year-end shindig. And a Mexican immigrant, acting out a near-daily ritual, said she'd be buying three of the $1.75 treats, one for now and two for later.

It's always tamale time at Michelle's Cafe in Fells Point, but on Wednesday, as throughout this holiday season, the cornmeal concoctions were practically flying out of the steamer. The cafe on Eastern Avenue usually moves 100 tamales a day; on Tuesday alone, the staff of four churned out 400.

"Which," said co-owner Jesus Mendoza, "is a lot."

Latinos have long felt a deep connection to their tamales, and never more so than around Christmas and New Year's, when families and friends gather to celebrate the season - and eat.

At restaurants, taco trucks and kitchens across the region, tons of tamales are being wrapped up and polished off, not just by Latinos but by legions of Anglo fans, too.

Tamales sound simple to make: Unfurl a corn husk or banana leaf; slather on a doughy corn paste called masa; ladle on the sauce; add chicken, jalapeno pepper or some other filling; wrap it all up and then steam for several hours.

But as any tamale lover will tell you, success lies in the details, given an overabundance of not-so-hot tamales.

In fact, a quest for real Mexican-style tamales was one reason Mendoza and his wife, Iveth Gonzalez, both in their late 20s, opened the cafe in 2006. (They named it for their 7-year-old daughter, Michelle.) To be sure, you can find Mexican-style tamales all over the Baltimore area, including at the Salvadoran restaurants on nearby Broadway. But for the couple, nothing quite measured up.

"We were looking to fill this need," said Gonzalez, sporting a black T-shirt bearing the cafe's boast: "best tamales in town."

It is hard to argue with their claim of authenticity. Take, for example, the mole poblano, a mild brown sauce consisting of dried tortilla, peppers, chocolate, raisins and other ingredients. Her mother makes it in their hometown of Puebla , Mexico , and ships it north.

Joaquin Fajardo, the private chef in Washington , first heard about Michelle's tamales from a client. One bite and he was sold. When he needed tamales for his New Year's Eve bash, he knew where to call.

"I'm a Latino myself. I make my own, and hers are better than mine," Fajardo said by cell phone. Given the demand for high-caliber cuisine at the party he would be catering, "you have to go with the best."

The person most responsible for Michelle's Cafe tamales is Guillermina Molina, Gonzalez's diminutive 40-year-old aunt. She and other members of the family were already living in Baltimore when the young couple left Mexico earlier this decade, making the city a logical destination.

On Wednesday morning, Molina stood in a small room at the back of the cafe, itself a cramped space with just three tables and the television blaring the Spanish-language Univision network.

Molina was waiting as the masa swirled around in a red KitchenAid appliance. The device started the kneading, but Molina would finish it. The dough's main component is a tamale-specific cornmeal bought from a supplier. The cafe adds the lard, salt, water and homemade chicken stock.

After Molina worked the dough with her hands for five minutes, it was ready. She flattened a corn husk that had soaked in hot water and scooped on some masa. Next she ladled on the sauce, in this case a mild adobo, which is dark red and made from dried peppers as well as avocado leaves. She dropped in a few pieces of chicken, added more sauce and then wrapped up the husk and folded over the bottom.

This one was ready for the steamer.

Except for the Puebla-made mole poblano, the sauces are made in-house. One is the adobo, another the salsa verde, a mild green sauce with a base of tart tomatillos. A fourth tamale is rajas, which means "slice" - as in, the slice of jalapeno you get. The sauce is tomato-based, and a piece of cheese often accompanies it. The fifth tamale on the menu is a sweet version.

The sixth and last choice uses a banana leaf wrap instead of a corn husk. The cafe calls it oaxaqueno, for the Mexican state of Oaxaca . Mendoza says it and Veracruz are the only two parts of his country where banana leaves are commonly used.

Tamales are dangerous fare for dieters. Mendoza estimates that each packs 400 calories, though it'd come as no surprise if that were higher. Asked about the fat content, all he could say was, "Whoa."

Some people will request a veggie tamale, thinking it less fattening. Mendoza tells such people that they're all made with lard, which is pork fat. Then he politely makes a suggestion: Buy a salad instead.

On Wednesday morning, as Marcia Sanchez prepared to order a trio of tamales, caloric intake didn't seem to matter. The 22-year-old native of Mexico says she usually eats three a day. Cindy Rand wasn't visibly concerned about calories, either. She lived in California years ago and still misses those tamales.

With friends visiting from North Carolina , Rand had ordered 30 tamales, six of each kind except the sweet ones.

She had never sampled this cafe's goods but had heard rave reviews. "I'm excited," she said with a smile before darting back into the wind holding two straining bags of tamales.

Featured also in Food and wine blog by Greg vince, click here to see the original page article

Best Tamales in Town: Michelle’s Cafe

By Greg B.  I am fortunate enough to have developed my tastes to the point where I can appreciate excellent Mexican food.  Now, there are many different kinds of Mexican dishes, and there is not time or space in this one post to cover them all, but I should devote this one to the Tamal.  I am also fortunate enough to live close to Michelle’s Cafe and within easy access to great food.

I first wandered into Michelle’s with my father a few years ago, looking for some quick Mexican food.  After our cross country motorcycle trip, where we basically sampled tamales, chile rellenos and other Mexican dishes throughout the American West, we have been in a perpetual search for good Mexican.  Randomly walking into Michelle’s and seeing the tamal menu, we knew we had found the right place.

A tamal is a traditional Mexican dish that takes a LOT of time to prepare.  I have made them before by hand and it really takes hours of preparation and cooking time.  You essentially mix masa, or a corn meal with water and lard (yes, lard.  there is not making a good tamal without this, so don’t even try to skimp on the fat), make a paste, line the inside of a dried corn husk with this, fill it with whatever you want, usually pork and some sauce, then roll the husk up, tie it off and steam cook it for a few hours.  These are really absolutely delicious dishes and I cannot get enough of them!  I should also take this time to mention that I really love Mexican food, and I try to limit myself to it maybe twice a month.  Any more, and I risk offsetting a delicate balance and I trend towards addiction to it.  This month, I’ve been teetering on the edge.  I tried Mexican food at Carolina’s in Fells point earlier, and then this past weekend was a party.  At this party was a friend of mine whom I had not seen in a while, Paulina, who makes some of the best mole I can find, outside of small restaurants in the American south west (and, I assume, Mexico, but I have not sampled enough restaurants in Mexico to make this conclusion….. not yet!).  She had prepared Mole with pork as a dish, and it was fantastic.  Thus, my fond love of Mexican food re-kindled, I had to stop by Michelle’s on my way home.

Now, I got my dinner from Michelle’s tonight, and usually I just get a bunch of tamales to go, but tonight I felt extra hungry and also got a quesadilla with chorizo.  This was excellent, came with a salad and some sauce that was just the perfect amount of heat to go with the chorizo and cheese…mmmm mmm!  I have had a torta from here before as well, and it too was exceptional (though I will admit, tortas are not my area of expertise with Mexican food, I have only eaten about 5 in my lifetime).  The tamales were fantastic, I got two oaxaquenno which have chicken, a sauce and are wrapped not in corn husks but in banana leaves.  These are delicious and hardly need any extra heat, though I do usually add some extra hot sauce to the mix.  The jalapenos tamales normally do not need this though, they are pretty good right from the steamer!

Michelle’s also sells some various Mexican drinks, like tamarind soda and they have desserts and snacks from Mexico as well.  It is not a very large space to eat in, but it is well worth it to stop in one day and buy some tamales.  $8 minimum for credit card purchases, open 6:30am till 7pm Monday through Saturday, 8am-3pm Sunday, these folks are pumping out the tamales as fast as they can make them.  And I suggest you go drop in and see why makes them so good!