HICA Tamales!!!

Well, today was fun!  I got to make tamales on television and help promote the HICA Annual Christmas Tamale Sale! 

I’ve done TV appearances before to promote the sale but this is the first time I’ve “made” them on TV.  Let me explain why I used quotes around “made.”  Usually, we bring a few tamales to the TV station, along with some Mexican décor.  We set everything up on a table and talk to the host/anchor about HICA’s programs, explain a little about tamales and end with how to buy them.  Today we took a different approach.

Monica Black, HICA’s Communications and Development Associate, arrived at the station equipped with everything we would need to make a tamale on camera.  She along with HICA staff member, Cindy Garcia, brought tamale fillings, masa (tamale dough) already made, corn husks (some already softened), ingredients to make both the red and green sauce for the filling and beautiful talavera plates for display.  Oh!  and they also brought a dozen of each flavor of tamale we are selling along with the tamale pots!  They are so awesome!

Me and Carlos Aleman – getting ready for our 3 segments on ABC 33/40 Talk of Alabama! Photo credit: Cindy Garcia

We made full use of the new studio kitchen at ABC 33/40 today.  Naturally, we couldn’t show the entire process in real-time – we would have been there all day, which we explained.  We were able to show the steps involved and demonstrate how to make an actual tamale from spreading the masa on a corn husk and adding our choice of filling – in this case either pork with red sauce or chicken with green sauce.  Next I showed how to fold the tamale and explained how to place the finished product into a tamale pot – a tamalera – and how to cook them.

Through all this, my fellow board member, Carlos Aleman and I talked up HICA and how this tamale fundraiser helps support the wonderful programs of the organization.  We have been doing this tamale sale since 2003 and sold over 70,000 tamales!  That’s a BUNCH of tamales!!!  This year our goal is to sell 10,000 and hopefully we will meet that goal.  We shall see!!!

Anyway, it was a different TV experience since the first segment was about 4-1/2 minutes long followed by another 2-3 minute segment halfway through the one hour show.  The last segment was at the very end of the show when our wonderful co-hosts sampled their choice of tamales and we did a quick wrap up on how to buy tamales on our website.

Thanks to the folks at Talk of Alabama on ABC 33/40 for such a wonderful experience today.  Y’all were so wonderful to work with, in particular our co-host for the segment, Javante Ingram!  Java has her own special tamale story which she shared with us on air.  And that’s why we love this tamale sale so much…it brings out the stories in people and how important tamales have become in their celebrations and special memories.  Food does that!

A photo from the ABC 33/40 Talk of Alabama website showing the first of 3 videos from the show today.

Don’t forget to buy some tamales if you are in the Birmingham area!!!

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