Hot tamales are a regional favorite in western Mississippi.
Or rather, he had to answer a lot of the same question over and over again.
People were calling from all over, asking, Whats gonna happen to the tamales?
Credit:Joshua Carlucci
Eugene Sr. learned how to make tamales as a teenager in 1960 and opened the restaurant 10 years later.
Eugene Jr. had a decision to make.
Some believe that tamales appeared in the region during the Mexican American War in the late 1840s.
Credit:Joshua Carlucci
As tamale stands became more popular, tamales became as ingrained in the fabric of Delta culture asthe blues.
And it’s spectacular.
Nevertheless, theyre no doubt a mysterious metamorphosis of enmeshed cultures.
Credit:Joshua Carlucci
She likens the tamales lack of historical clarity to that of legendary bluesman Robert Johnsons three gravesites in Mississippi.
If somebody dug up the [right] grave, it would ruin the mystery, you know?
We thrive on these conversations in the not knowing, and it makes it so much more interesting.
Barbara Pope.Credit:Joshua Carlucci
Its usually a cornhusk, but some cooks use parchment paper.
Once theyre done, theyre unwrapped and eatensometimes by themselves, or withsaltine crackersand hot sauce.
The result is a husky yellow cigar coated in red juice and filled with succulent, tender meat.
Credit:Joshua Carlucci
At Hicks, they are made with beef, although deer tamales arent uncommon during open season.
Hed break them down, mix the venison with fat trimmings, and make tamales from it.
A lot of people do make tamales from ground beef, but I dont, says Barbara Pope.
White Front tamales unwrapped.Credit:Joshua Carlucci
I like the brisket because it has a lot of lean and fat.
She says, He told me, I’m going to give you this recipe.
But I want you to add or take something away from this recipe.
So it can be your own.
I said, Okay.
But I had no intention of making no hot tamale!
Pope took over in 2005 after her brother died.
My mother told me, Go on and do it.
So I came up here," she says.
Since then, its been just her and her tiny four-burner stove, making tamales a little different.
Pope cooks her brisket, grinds it, then seasons it and lets the seasoning penetrate overnight.
The next day, she rolls tamales by hand into cornhusksabout 900 to 1,200 per batch.
Then, she boils them in plain water.
Blair learned to make tamales as a teenager from a neighbor in late 1960s Clarksdale.
Hes since opened and closed several restaurants inMemphisand Clarksdale, but today, works alone.
His notoriety for his tamales is enough to sell them by word of mouth.
He takes orders for them by phone, and takes a more brazen approach to their cookery.
I cook mine in a sauce and the sauce is absorbed into the tamale, Blair says.
All my customers want me to confirm that I give them plenty of sauce with their tamale order.
The project chronicle’s the food’s evolution, which is as pedestrian as its nature.
Just about every tamale maker has learned from someone who has learned from someone else.
As simple as they are, theyre arduous to make.
Nobody wants to do this.
Its hard work, not a lot of money.
In other Delta families, there are some who do.
In the end, Eugene Jr. decided to carry the torch.
Hes doing the best he can to modernize what his father left him while keeping the same product.
I just decided, as long as I can keep them going, Ill do it.
And I’ve got a son.
If he wants to come behind me and take over for me, he can do it.
As for Blair, hell keep making tamales as long as his customers keep him around.
Its not hard, but its tedious, he says.
But what I enjoy is knowing that people enjoy it.
On a spring afternoon in Rosedale, I sit with Barbara Pope and her friend at White Front Cafe.
The screen door lets the pale afternoon sun pour in through its tinny mesh.
I unwrap my tamales and let the steam caress my face.
I ask her something I hadnt thought of yet: if theres any right way to eat them.
Have you ever seen something like that?
He might be onto something new.
