“Looks Like Otah, Tastes Like Bak Chang”: Mexican Chefs Introduce Authentic Tamales To S’pore

The boiled kernels are painstakingly kneaded to form a dough, which is then stuffed with a meat, fruit or chilli filling, seasoned and shaped into a flat rectangle similar to otah (and tastes like bak chang).

Like otah and bak chang, the tamale is wrapped with banana leaf or corn husk and steamed to serve. In Spanish, the dish is spelled ‘tamal’, though also popularly known as tamale. The plural form of tamale is tamales.

A self-taught chef, Maribel grew up surrounded by tamales, as her mother and grandmother run a shop selling them in their native Puebla, Mexico. She is now serving her home-style tamales in Singapore via a pop-up concept called Mami’s Tamales, having moved here 10 years ago after marrying her Singaporean husband.

While pregnant with her second child, the mum-of-two craved her childhood tamales but could not find any eateries selling them here. “So I started making them myself as a home-based business,” explains Maribel, a published author who was working a full-time job as the marketing director for an education technology company before going into F&B.

Earlier this year, she shifted her tamale operations to a physical shop space, as a temporary pop-up within cocktail bar Purple Agave on the second floor of a Keong Saik Road shophouse. One of the customers at the pop-up was Jose Mauricio Espinoza Lara, the chef-owner of local popular Mexican taqueria chain Papi’s Tacos.

Papi’s tacos, mami’s tamales

The two Mexican chefs hit it off, and decided to set up a pop-up concept for Maribel’s tamales, also at Keong Saik Road. They named it Mami’s Tamales, as a playful nod to chef Jose’s restaurant brand (‘mami’ and ‘papi’ are also used as terms of endearment in Spanish).

The 35-seat pop-up restaurant, decorated exuberantly to resemble a homely Mexican eatery, runs for three months from 15 July to October. It is likely to extend if there is public demand. Other than tamales, it will also serve a selection of Mexican starters, salads, molletes (Mexican open face sandwiches) and tortas (Mexican sandwiches).

“I’m from Papalotla and Maribel is from Puebla. It’s like New York and New Jersey. We’re supposed to be rivals, not collaborating!” says chef Jose in mock horror. The 39-year-old arrived in Singapore eight years ago to work as a chef, and has led quite the colourful life.

From his native Mexico, he crossed the US border as an illegal immigrant at 20 to seek work, and was kidnapped by human smugglers in Tijuana. After being held in a warehouse with other hopeful immigrants, he was released by a stroke of luck. He managed to cross the border to California, and made his way to New York without knowing how to speak English. There, he took up a job as a dishwasher before working his way up to a chef position.

In Singapore, he merrily ate his way through the hawker food offered here, and discovered that he likes otah. “When I came to Singapore, I tasted otah and was like oh my god, this is like the little brother of a tamale. Both are steamed and use banana leaves. The difference is that we don’t use fish paste, we use corn masa,” he shares.

Tamales and its myriad of fillings also serve a practical purpose for Mexicans. He adds: “In Mexico we have a lot of corn and if we don’t want to waste it, we figure out what to do with it. We just fill them with whatever we have.”

Authentic tamales in Singapore

It ain’t an easy task introducing tamales to a nation of otah eaters, though. “It was a risk that Singaporeans won’t like it. The easier way to do it is Tex-Mex, the simple style [Americanised, with more recognisable ingredients like meat and cheese instead of fresh seasonal Mexican ingredients],” says chef Jose.

But he points out that tamales “have too much heritage involving traditions passed down from family to family”, which he is keen to preserve.

He explains: “We grew up with it, we have it at birthdays and funerals and any kind of party. I have an army of aunties who are like professional tamale makers. You can have a thousand tamales in five hours. It’s our culture, especially coming from the countryside.”

Asian-style tamales

To make tamales more recognisable to Singaporean diners while staying faithful to authentic Mexican recipes, the two chefs offer tamales done “the Mexican way” and “the Asian way”.

For Mexican tamales, you get the classic Cheese & Pepper ($13), Chicken Tinga ($16), chicken breast simmered in a chipotle sauce, Pork Salsa Verde ($18), the vegetarian Guajillo & Jackfruit ($15) with jackfruit chunks cooked in a guajillo chilli sauce, and a vegetarian take on Mushroom Pastor ($15), a traditional pork dish served with adobo sauce and pineapples.

And, for some familiar local flavours, there are options like Ayam Sambal Hijau ($14), Moo Ping Pork ($15), Curry Tempeh ($16) and Salmon Tom Yum ($20). You can also get a Mami’s Tamales Platter ($58) with any four tamales of your choice, served with sour cream and salsa on the side.

For dessert, there’s a Sweet Tamal ($13) topped with whipping cream and tequila caramel.

What makes a good tamale?

According to chef Maribel, a good tamale should have “flavourful masa and filling with a bite”. While tamales are typically served as a plain parcel to be unwrapped (like bak chang), she plates and jazzes up her tamales with little colourful edible flowers.

“Tamales don’t look too appealing. Traditionally it’s given to you, you unwrap it and that’s it. But Mexican food is about colour, and we want to present it in a more modern way to appeal to a new market,” she shares.

Both banana leaves and corn husks are used to wrap the masa. Chef Maribel points out: “Mexico produces corn, so we use the husk in many ways. Funnily enough, in Mexico the expensive tamales are wrapped with banana leaves and the cheap ones with corn husks. Here it’s the other way around, ’cos it’s easy to find banana leaves but it’s very hard to find corn husks that are large enough to wrap tamales with.”

For her own tamales, she wraps her Asian-style tamales with banana leaves, and Mexican tamales with corn husk. Each batch takes up to six hours to make. Chef Jose explains: “Making the dough takes time, to make sure the texture is right. You need to marinate the meat, and the sauce is very important too. It’s like a taco; if the sauce is not good, the tamale is not going to be good.”

And there’s the tamale wrapping itself: “You have to make it one by one. Masa, a little bit of sauce, fold it. It’s a handcrafted art. It takes time to do it, and it’s not easy to replicate far away from home,” he says.

Chicken Tinga, $16 (8 Days Pick!)

We have admittedly never tried a tamale, though from what we tasted of chef Maribel’s version, we like it. The earthy, slightly sweet masa is packed firmly enough to have a good bite, but crumbles in our mouth easily. It reminds us of a less sticky, more fragrant Chinese bak chang. The tender chicken tinga, served with more chipotle sauce, packs enough of a spicy kick to go with the corn dough and leaves us wanting more.

Guajillo & Jackfruit, $15 (8 Days Pick!)

The guajillo chilli-seasoned jackfruit tamale is just as good, and comes imprinted with fibrous lines of the corn husk that was used to wrap it. Vegetarian-friendly, the feisty chunks of guajillo-spiked jackfruit is a hearty substitute for meat.

Our only grouse is that it’s too petite a portion, and we will need at least four tamales to make a full (but pricey) meal. That said, the higher prices here reflect the amount of work needed to make tamales, and importing Mexican ingredients that are not readily available here.

Ayam Sambal Hijau, $14

Curry Tempeh, $16

Out of all the tamale flavours offered, we didn’t find this mod pairing as tasty as the other picks. Though perked up with a curry sauce, the bland-by-nature tempeh is not a good foil for the delicate masa.

Sweet Tamal, $13 (8 Days Pick!)

But this dessert tamale may be our favourite out of the lot. Sweet corn kernels are added to the masa, so there’s extra crunch in every bite that oozes agave and tequila caramel (the latter barely has a hint of alcoholic taste, though). The accompanying whipped cream also makes the tamal extra decadent.

Mami’s Tamales pop-up runs from now till circa Oct 15 (may be extended if there’s demand), at 55 Keong Saik Road, #01-02, S089158. Open daily, (lunch) Tues-Sun 12pm-2.30pm, (dinner) Tues-Sat 5pm-11pm (dinner service starts at 6pm). Facebook, Instagram

Photos: Aik Chen

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