A New Take On Tamales
Tuesday, 03 March 2009 00:00
The Tucson Tamale Company, 2545 E. Broadway, opened its doors last November with a goal to bring healthy, unique food to the Tucson community.
The restaurant's owner, Todd Martin, previously owned another restaurant in Denver before leaving for a technical support job at Intuit, a computer software company. After 12 years at the company, Martin decided to give his passion for food another chance, and decided to focus on gourmet tamales.
"I love food and I have always loved to cook. I just started playing around with the different recipes," Martin said. "My friends started coming over, and everybody loved them and well, I decided this is what I need to do."
Martin prides himself on having a business model fully of integrity. He uses all-natural ingredients in his food, many from local producers, and without a deep fryer in sight.
"I've developed a masa that has no lard in it, with heart-healthy oils, no cholesterol, no trans fat, no hydrogenated oils, so its really crisp and clean and you get just the flavor of the corn," he said.
Hear Martin speak about tamales and see photos of his restaurant:
With eight tamales currently on the menu, and a rotating list of specials, Martin said he is always trying new things and has and more exotic varieties in the works.
"The tamale is the oldest food in the Americas. The recorded history of tamales goes back 5,000 years," Martin said. "You're going to get flavors you've never seen or heard of before here in Tucson."
The fledgling company is just over three months old, but Martin said he already has a local following and has been receiving rave reviews.
Martin is also using his savvy technology background to boost his business on the internet. He said much of his initial advertising push was done on social networking sites like Facebook. He also keeps a blog to document his journey of opening a restaurant, as well as running a Twitter page under the name 'cornartist.'
How To Make Tamales
Tamale Tasting
Reheating Instructions
Free Tamales For Life
A Satisfied Customer
All photos and video by Cody Calamaio and Cameron Jones
Written by Cody Calamaio You are reading A New Take On Tamales articles
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