JANUARY 19, 2014

PAMPANGA: Where to buy Kapampangan Tamales

What is the Kapampangan Tamales?
The Kapampangan Tamales is a Filipino dish originating from the province of Pampanga. It is made of ground rice,
peanut and coconut milk cooked into a paste and then wrapped with meat, usually chicken and egg, in banana leaves
then boiled.
This is a totally different dish from the Mexican tamales both in flavor and ingredients. The only similarity is the way
it's cooked. The ingredients are wrapped in banana leaves and boiled in water.
Where to buy the Kapampangan Tamales?
Residents of Pampanga usually have regular suppliers in markets or from home industries. For tourists like us, here are
three places I discovered where you can find a regular supply.

RAZON'S OF GUAGUA RESTAURANT

MEGA CALTEX STATION at the North Luzon Expressway, Southbound Lane, after the San Fernando Exit
It's not Razon's restaurant who's selling the tamales. A vendor was allowed to put up a small stall/desk inside the
restaurant and sell the tamales.
My tip: Be there from 11:00 AM onwards. The vendor arrives at 11:00 AM

View City of Sn Fernando in a larger map

PRICE: 70 pesos per tamales (if you're one of the first buyers, they give it at 50 pesos per piece as
"buena mano" price for good luck)

SUSIE'S CUISINE
MacArthur Highway, San Fernando City
This is the branch where we bought our tamales. I'm not sure if other branches sell tamales too.
View City of Sn Fernando in a larger map

PRICE: 70 pesos per tamales

SAN GUILLERMO PARISH CHURCH

There's an ambulant vendor in front of the gates of the Church who's selling tamales. We found her there when we
arrived around 1130 AM on a Sunday, but left before we finished visiting and exploring the Church. So we weren't able
to buy tamales from her. Perhaps she sells the tamales when there's Mass.
View City of Sn Fernando in a larger map

My tip:
To me, the Kapampangan Tamales sold by the vendor inside Razon's of Guagua restaurant at Mega Caltex
Station, NLEX tastes much better than the tamales sold by Susie's cuisine. This is not to say tamales sold by
Susie's cuisine tastes bad. Susie's tamales tasted good too. I just prefer the tamales sold inside Razon's
because it's less salty and more flavorful.

History in food
By Ambeth Ocampo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:20:00 08/03/2010
Filed Under: history, Food

THOUGH THEY have long passed away, my paternal grandparents are often remembered through the food we eat. Cholesterol-rich
signature dishes served during reunions make people and generations bond together. The food is not spectacular, but the way these
dishes are prepared and the memories they evoke make them special. Umba and nilaga with trembling pork fat, chicharon with laman?
All these are poison to anyone on a diet, but on our Sunday reunions everyone over five generations digs in. My nieces even bring their
own Tupperware containers to take some home.
Certain foods come with certain seasons like suman or young green sticky rice, available during the Christmas season. These are popfried and placed atop thick Spanish chocolate for a healthy afternoon drink. Then there is the taba ng talangka, the crab fat that comes
with the rainy season in July and August. Freshly squeezed out of hundreds of little crablets, one sack would fill only a small Nescafe
diamond glass, everything cooked with garlic and dayap. When mixed with freshly steamed Milagrosa rice, or made into a pasta
sauce, home-made taba ng talangka and not the diluted ones available from stores is a taste of heaven.
I write about this because my annual ration of taba ng talangka has arrived. I also remember that I was asked to prepare a program for
the state visit of the president of Mexico that included a trip to Mexico, Pampanga, and a lunch that would provide a taste of the
Pampanga tamales or boboto. You can get tamales in Manila anytime from Milkyway or in the Sunday market in Quezon City. If you are
southbound on NLEX, stop at the Shell station after the Angeles exit and look for the man peddling tamales from the town of
Cabalantian.
Since most of the so-called Mexican restaurants in the Philippines do not serve authentic Mexican food but an American variation
known as Tex-Mex we only know chili con carne and margaritas. Mexican tamales is like a dumpling made from Indian meal, of
course seasoned with chili, and wrapped in the husk of Indian corn and boiled in oil. It is nothing like the Pampanga tamales even in
shape. Ours is square and made up of ground rice with chicken strips, egg and sometimes ham. The amount of filling determines
whether it is special or not. More ingredients makes it special. Tamales are wrapped in layers of banana leaves and steamed.
I doubt whether Pampangos saw and tasted real Mexican tamales during the time of the Galleon Trade, but aside from its name there
is no similarity in taste between the Mexican and Kapampangan tamales.
I have been thinking of foreign influences in Philippine food recently and wonder why people put the Pampanga tamales under ?
Spanish influence? when it should be Mexican. Or why the Pampanga biringhi should be called yet another version of the Spanish
paella when this rice dish in look, ingredients, and name might have come from India and the biryani. While the Spanish paella is made
of saffron-colored rice with chicken and pork topped with bell pepper and lemon, biringhi is made of malagkit or glutinous rice instead of
ordinary rice. It has chicken, pork and chorizo but instead of saffron, ange is used, which gives it a distinct green color. Sometimes gata
or coconut milk is added to make it richer than the Spanish paella. It may not be as spicy, but the Pampanga biringhi could really trace
its origins to the Indian biryani.
Chinese influence in the food of Pampanga is not as evident and may be more deeply rooted than we think because the terms used for
cooking and the names of cooking implements are Chinese.
This we have yet to tease out from the food. Is there a Japanese influence somewhere? While the Japanese occupation was not as
long as the Spanish and American periods, there were Japanese residents in the Philippines as far back as the 16th century, and one of
the things they probably introduced into our food had something to do with shaved ice. Syrup on finely shaved ice that we know under
the commercial name ?Snow Cone? is a summer refreshment in Japan. Then there are the sweet stewed beans on ice that we know
under a Spanish name as mongo con hielo or even mais con hielo. The Japanese introduced the mongo and garbanzos in a thick
sugar sauce. These form the basic ingredients for halo-halo. Whether you go to the halo-halo chain Razon?s of Guagua or the famous
stall in Angeles called Corazon?s, ask yourself again about the origin of halo-halo.
Turron de casuy from Sta. Rita is similar to the Spanish turron Alicante. The Spanish version is a long rectangular block of hard nougat
with almonds and honey wrapped in an almost invisible but edible film. Turron de casuy must have been made to simulate turron
Alicante, but since no almonds were available the cooks used cashew nuts instead. Instead of rectangular blocks or even the round
ones, Pampanga turrones come in small finger-size bars made of a similar nougat. These are not as hard as the Spanish ones and not
white but brown and wrapped with an edible paper of the same type used for hosts at Mass.
Next time you eat Filipino food, take the time to relish the flavors and look back at the long history that made these what they are today.