In early June the Culinary Institute of America and Viking Range Corporation hosted a culinary tour of the Mississippi Delta. Part of this week-long trip included a guided tour of the Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail. We began our tour in Cleveland, where we visited Delta Fast Food and sampled some of Mr. Rainey's red hots. In Rosedale, we visited with Barbara Pope and Susie Irving at Joe's Hot Tamale Place. There was a short stop at Big Jim's in Clarksdale, where the group sampled tamales and Koolickles (Kool-Aid spiked dill pickles). We ended the day in Clarksdale at the Shack-Up Inn, where Betty Hicks of Hicks' World Famous Hot Tamales & More in Clarksdale gave the group a short tamale how-to. Ann Cashion, chef instructor for the culinary tour, worked alongside Betty, making a different kind of tamale to illustrate the uniqueness of the Delta-style tamale. Ann made a traditional masa dough, used a catfish fillet for the filling, and then steamed the tamales. Everyone--especially Betty and Ann--enjoyed the sharing of stories and tamale-making methods.
The picture above is of Ann Cashion describing her masa dough (foreground) as Betty Hicks listens.
