Growing up, Enrique Mariscal would ride his bicycle around his apartment complex's retention pond in sunny Southern California. All the 8-year-old wanted to do was play. But his mother, Candelaria, who was in the kitchen making tamales, would interrupt him every afternoon.
"Enrique," she called. "Ven, prueba la masa!"
"She would call me over to try [the masa]," Mariscal says. Masa was the mixture of ground corn, salt and water she used as the tamale base.
"She would ask me if it needed more salt or if it had enough," he says. "As a kid, she would take my word for it. I think that gave me confidence. If it wasn't for me trying that as a kid, I don't know if you could teach me now."
What started as an interruption became a full-time passion. Mariscal and his fiancée, Lauren Murray, now own Tamale Box, a counter-service restaurant that features the same tamale recipe his mother used (and never wrote down). Tamale Box started as a farmers market booth in 2019 and opened its first permanent location in Kendall Yards in February. Another location is in the works for Greenstone's new River District near Liberty Lake, which the couple hopes will be open by next winter.
Farmers market regulars and newcomers alike pummeled Tamale Box's soft opening. Each tamale — black bean, cheddar and jalapeño, pork chile verde, shredded beef, or chicken chile rojo — is under $6. They're so plump that a pair is more than enough for an office lunch. Or, grab a side of homemade rice and beans ($4) with a single tamale for just as satisfying a meal.
The menu is simple, especially since Mariscal oversees each handmade tamale. The Kendall Yards location is so small that they use a commercial kitchen down the block. This summer, Tamale Box won't be able to operate as a farmers market booth. But once the kitchen in Liberty Lake is built out, he might experiment with a few more offerings and pop-up vending again.
"There are ways that we could expand," he says. "But keeping it to just tamales keeps it specialized. I think it's the best way to keep our quality at the level that we want it, especially because they're so labor intensive."
In Mexico, tamales are sometimes cheap street food, gobbled down on the go like a banana. Or they're made with family at Christmastime. Like pasta, they were created as a food for the people. But unlike pasta, they aren't often elevated as a luxury dish.
"We want to do our part in helping to change the perception that certain cultures of food are more valuable than others," Murray says.
The drink menu is also intentionally curated, offering Jarritos, Mexican Coke and classic Mexican beers, but also some favorite natural wines. Murray was the first to introduce Mariscal to natural wine, and she does most of the beverage selection for the spot. Mariscal trusts her palate. He's not the only one.
"My mom, she trusts her," he says. "Lauren knows her stuff."
Tamales have always been the family business. Once Candelaria honed her recipe in her Mexican hometown, La Peñita de Jaltemba, she sent Mariscal's older brothers out on bikes to sell them. The young boys didn't want to work, so the first few days they purposely came back with plenty of tamales left over. They figured if they didn't sell them, their mother would stop making them.
"My mom would be in tears because this was the only way to make money," Mariscal says. "So the next day, my mom would make more and send them out."
After a few days, neighbors started noticing how good Candelaria's tamales were — the masa was perfect, they had lots of filling, and they were tied at both ends, a technique that allows for bigger, more stuffed tamales. Once word got around, the boys' job got a lot easier.
"They would just show up, and the first place they would stop, they would sell everything," Mariscal says.
Mariscal's family has been providing tamales, and tamales have been providing for them, for three generations now. Murray and Mariscal are expecting a baby girl this summer. The tamales that Candelaria started in La Peñita will now provide for a granddaughter in Spokane.
During a recent visit to Spokane, Candelaria sat in the back of Tamale Box, still involved in tasting and perfecting the tamales, but dutifully passing down "el sazón," the magic touch, that was trained into her.
"It comes from her grandparents and her mom, just by tasting it and knowing what it's supposed to taste like," her son says. "Growing up, my mom would call me over — specifically me. My brothers all sold tamales. But I will take pride in saying that I think I'm the one that can make them just like my mom. If not, maybe sometimes, better." ♦
Tamale Box • 1102 W. Summit Pkwy. • Open Tue-Sat 11 am-8 pm • tamaleboxspokane.com • 559-426-9850
