El Restaurante Mexicano
Spring 2002
El Cholo Hits Gold
with Green Corn Tamales
©2002 Maiden Name Press LLC
No one's likely to sing the blues when El Cholo starts serving up the green this spring. That's because the restaurants' green corn tamales, introduced by founders Rosa and Alejandro Borquez in 1923 and served only from May through October, have become a signature dish, according to Ron Salisbury, Alejandro's grandson and president of The Restaurant Business Inc. of La Habra, Calif., which owns four El Cholo restaurants.
"She offered them only when the corn was fresh, and that's a tradition that remains in place today," Salisbury says. "The Monday night just prior to the first of May, we have a traditional party at all four of the [company-owned] El Cholos. The customers come in and help to make the first tamales."
At the Western Avenue El Cholo in Los Angeles, the party is held outdoors on the covered patio, while the other restaurants convene their festivities indoors. Mariachi music adds to the spirit of conviviality, and a limit of 100 guests is imposed. "We've been doing it for 20 years," Salisbury reports. "It's a way to celebrate the start of a new season."
Founding family Rosa and Alejandro Borquez
Because food was scarce, partially spoiled corn wasn't thrown away. "They would remove the damaged part, and then proceed to cut the good part off the cob," Salisbury says. "And then they made that into tamales. They made the most of things in those days."
The green corn tamales proved a sensation when the family introduced them almost 80 years ago at the Sonora Cafe, their first restaurant in Los Angeles that was named after their home state of Sonora, Mexico. In 1925, the name was changed to El Cholo Cafe, after an artistic customer drew a figure of a man on the menu and called him "El Cholo," the name California's Spanish settlers gave their field workers.
Their daughter Aurelia married George Salisbury in 1926, and the following year the young couple unveiled their own El Cholo in a storefront at 11th and Western, on what was then Los Angeles' far western border. Furnished with eight stools and three booths, the eatery also featured a "hot top stove" the Salisburys used to heat tortillas and melt cheese enchiladas.
Four years later, the restaurant moved to its current location in a California-style bungalow across the street from the original. By then, El Cholo's green corn tamales and other specialties had won an enthusiastic cadre of customers that included such Tinseltown titans as Gary Cooper, Harold Lloyd, Bing Crosby and Loretta Young.
A legend, in fact, has sprung up around Cooper's frequent visits to the restaurant in his yellow Duesenberg car. "The story is that he liked strawberry jam with his flour tortillas, and if they didn't have any on hand, my dad would send up to the store for strawberry jam," Salisbury says.
The mariachi group "The Divas" performs at the 2001 tamale "kick-off" party at El Cholo's Los Angeles location.
The restaurants, however, aren't the only things that keep the Salisburys busy these days. To keep customers in the green corn tamales they crave, El Cholo offers frozen ones year-round through the Williams-Sonoma catalog and on the El Cholo website (www.elcholo.com). "What we're working at is developing it more as a mail order item," Salisbury says. "It makes a nice, unique gift."
Salisbury admits that offering the signature dish poses challenges. On one hand, summer is El Cholo's busiest season, and a driving factor behind the increased traffic is the seasonal availability of the green corn tamales. On the other hand, the tamales are costly to produce, because they require extensive hand labor, Salisbury says.
"That's the tradeoff, I think," he adds. "But the two things that seem to be synonymous with the restaurant are the margaritas and the green corn tamales."
In other words, green corn tamales aren't likely to go away anytime soon, as long as they continue to bring El Cholo that other kind of green.
Recipe courtesy of El Cholo restaurants, La Habra, Calif.
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Green Corn Tamales
Makes 12 tamales (8 oz. each) | |||
| 24 | ears yellow corn (best May through October) | ||
| 1/2 | lb. cornmeal | ||
| 1/4 | lb. shortening | ||
| 1/4 | lb. unsalted butter | ||
| 3/4 | c. sugar | ||
| 1/2 | c. half and half or cream | ||
| 1 | t. salt | ||
| 12 | 1-oz. strips cheddar cheese | ||
| 1 | 24-oz. can Ortega chiles | ||
| Parchment paper, cut into squares | |||
| White cotton string | |||
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Cut both ends of the corn, remove the husks and save for wrapping. Cut corn kernels off the cob. In food processor, grind the kernels with the cornmeal. Set aside. Beat shortening and butter together until creamy. Add sugar,
half and half and salt. Add corn mixture and mix well. For each tamale, overlap two corn husks. Spread some of the corn mixture onto the husks. Place one cheese strip and one chile strip on top of the mixture. Top with more corn mixture. Bring the edges of the corn husks over the filling to cover completely. Place one husk on a square of parchment paper. Fold ends of corn husks up, over the tamale, then fold sides of parchment over tamale and fold up ends. Tie string around the little package to hold in place. Continue until all tamales are prepared. Place on a rack and steam 35 to 45 minutes.
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