DELTA TAMALE ARTICLE IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES

Many Tamale Trail vendors are featured in this wonderful article by John O'Connor that was published in the August 22 edition of the Financial Times:

Ervin’s Hot Tamales sits at the split end of a narrow gravel drive outside the town of Sledge, Mississippi (Pop. 461), about 70 miles south of Memphis. It’s a straight shot to Ervin’s from Highway 61, no more than two minutes by car along Six Mile Lake Road. Unless, of course, Six Mile Lake Road happens to be washed out by flood water, in which case you have to backtrack and follow a sinuous stretch of asphalt past oceans of cotton fields, scrubland and irrigation ditches with virtually no identifiable landmark in sight, until you reach a sharp double bend in the road and happen to glimpse the gravel drive on your left just as you go chicaning past it.

There is no sign outside Ervin’s. In fact, Ervin’s isn’t an actual restaurant. It’s just a small, grey house on a spot of land that has been in the family for nearly 100 years. Out back, at the edge of a fallow soybean field, stands a tin-roofed shack where Edna Ervin and her 85-year-old mother, Rosetta, make about 850 hot tamales a week, which they sell in bundles to local grocery stores. Continue reading...

SFA FILM OF ELIZABETH SCOTT OF SCOTT'S HOT TAMALES IN GREENVILLE, MS

Rolling Tamales on M.L.K. from Southern Foodways on Vimeo.

Elizabeth Scott was the SFA's 2007 Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame award winner. Find out more about the award here, and read our oral history interview with Ms. Scott. here.

DELTA TAMALES ON GOURMET'S BLOG

Photo by Ginger Ann Brook 

Article by Emily Matchar for Gourmet

The Mississippi Delta tamale is the Stonehenge of foods: No one is quite sure how a traditionally Hispanic dish wound up as a lunch counter favorite in these kudzu-choked river towns, but everyone's got a theory. Accompanied by my friend Laurie, I drove my old Civic up the ragged edge of the Delta--the lush, humid plain between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers--stopping to try tamales of all shapes and sizes. Although we didn't unravel the mystery, we sure got full. Read more....(link will take you directly to the original post on Gourmet's blog).

ARKANSAS TV CREW ON THE TAMALE TRAIL

On July 17, SFA oral historian Amy Evans met a group from Arkansas Educational Television along the Tamale Trail. The crew was following Rex Nelson, Alternate Federal Co-Chairman of the Delta Regional Authority; Kane Webb, writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; and Bill Vickery, political consultant and radio host (pictured L to R in the photo above). They picked up the Trail in West Helena, Arkansas, and finished their trek in Greenville, Mississippi. Amy met them mid-way in Clarksdale at Hicks' World Famous Hot Tamales and More, where they ate some tamales and talked shop.

Look for the segment to air on AETV sometime in early 2009. Meantime, check out Kane's article, "On the Tamale Trail: Where Culture and History Meet the Southern Belly," that appears in the August 3 edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and recounts their tamale-eating adventures. (Note: subscription required.)

ARIZONA HITS THE TAMALE TRAIL!

Alex and Tanja Sazdanoff traveled all the way from Phoenix, Arizona, to follow the Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail. When they returned home, they shared a few photos from their Delta adventure. Evidence of their stop at Joe's Hot Tamale Place is featured above.

If you plan to--or have already--hit the Tamale Trail, drop us a line! We'd love to share your thoughts and photos from the road right here. Just email Amy at acevans@olemiss.edu.

Grab a napkin and go!

FEASTING ON THE TAMALE TRAIL

Last spring, Alton Brown and his crew blew through the Mississippi Delta, collecting footage--and tamales--for the second season of Brown's Food Network show Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run. SFA oral historian Amy Evans met up with the guys in Rosedale, where they visited with Barbara Pope of Joe's White Front, ate tamales, and speculated about the origins of the Koolickle. Now, those moments are collected in a book of the same name.

Last week, Alton Brown blew through the Delta again, this time for some book signings. He spent the morning at TurnRow Book Company in Greenwood (a great Delta town with some fabulous tamales, by the way), and then hit the SFA's hometown of Oxford in the afternoon. Read a great review of Feasting on Asphalt by our friends at TurnRow.

Camp Chicago: An Up South Expedition

Brought to you by the Southern Foodways Alliance
May 23-25, 2008

Follow blues scholar Scott Barretta along Highway 61. Dish Chicago culinary history with Bruce Kraig, the Horace of hot dogs. Feast at West Town Tavern as Susan Goss pays homage to Edna Stewart and other old guard Chicago soul cooks. Take a bite out of a Mother-In-Law. Get the blues with Jimmy Burns at The Hideout. Shop the Maxwell Street Market. Wolf a catfish sandwich. Get in the swim at an aquarium barbecue pit. And more. Lots more.

For an additional fee, guests have the option of going on a Chicago X'Cursion. These mini-tours, guided by local folks who know their city best, will showcase the South in Chicago (Up South) and still get you to lunch on time. One of the X'Cursions is an on-the-ground education in Mother-in-Laws. Hike through Chicago with LTH forum leader (and mouse geneticist) Peter Engler, who contributed photographs to the Tamale Trail's Chicago Connection page, in search of the Windy City's famed tamale in a bun. Visit a tamale factory, and learn how these Delta treats arrived to the Windy City.

Visit the SFA's main site for more information and to register.