A present in itself that is a staple in Latino homes across the world. It comes in many shapes and sizes with countless iterations, and luckily we have a festival for it right on Long Beach City Colleges PCC campus. The Long Beach International Tamales Festival is back for a second year on Sunday, Dec. 4.
The event celebrates a humble food item that many are familiar with in some form. The event will show you how unique and different tamales can get. A tamale is a treat usually made with masa, a type of dough made from corn, with a filling of some sort, wrapped with either corn husks or banana leaves before being steamed in large pots.
One of the participants taking on the standard idea of a tamale in this festival is Los Angeles catering company and pop-up Evil Cooks, run by Elvia Huerta and Alex Garcia. Evil Cooks started as a T-shirt brand, while Garcia had been a chef for over 17 years. He started taking on private catering events, under the same name, and eventually left his chef position to work for himself and pursue the growth of the Evil Cooks business full time .
Evil Cooks plans on bringing a variety of different tamales to the event, including an extraordinary take on a sweet tamale known as their Gansito tamale, a small chocolate covered cake with cream and strawberry jelly. He brings the idea from the streets of Mexico City where instead of a savory masa, they use a sweet version in this iteration.
They’re also bringing corundas, a style of tamale from the Mexican state of Michoacan that is filled with pork belly and topped with crème fraîche and guajolotas, a type of street food from Mexico City where the tamales are served in a bread roll usually with all the toppings on the side.
“For us it’s really important to bring these things to the table, to open your mind up a little bit to this stuff,” Garcia said, “people usually say my mom doesn’t do it like that, and I like that challenge, I say ok at least try it out and usually I change their mind.”
Another contributor to the tamale lineup is Long Beach’s own Axiom Kitchen, who has a popup right down the street from LBCC’s LAC on Norse way. This kitchen is run by two LBCC Vikings themselves, Ian and Qiana Mafnas, and came about to honor the memory of their son that died in 2018.
This duo and their squad is bringing two different takes on the versatile tamale.
The first is a tamale gisu from Guam, which is a tamale that has two different types of masa. One half of the tamale is red and spicy, the other half is white and a mix of masa and cream of rice (an islander influence). The masa itself has meat mixed into it, and as the filling they add a strip of bacon.
“It’s an exclusive tamale,” Ian Mafna said, “you can’t get one in a 6,000 mile radius, you gotta go to Guam.”
They’re also bringing an all smoked tamale with brisket, masa and tomatillo salsa, all smoked individually before cooking. This lineup is also accompanied by their other offerings of brisket, ribs, pulled pork, corn, and mac and cheese.
“Community events help build community,” Ian said when asked about the importance of the festival, “it’s important for people to come together to collaborate and to be able to bring their differences to the table. Communication and unity makes community.”
These two culinary experts are joined by many others at this event. With traditional tamales from various parts of the world and innovative tamales from right here in our local area. There will also be offerings for the vegan and vegetarian guests.
The festival also boasts a full bar, live music, performances, tequila tastings, art workshops and retail vendors. Early bird tickets are sold out on their website but there are different tiers of tickets still up for sale all the way until the day of the event. Each tier comes with different perks, swag and special experiences for everybody to enjoy.