Each story is a different tale. It is communicated in the same way, but maybe a different style. This will be told with many pictures, but few words that will describe how amazing this part of our excursion was. The story is about a great man by the name of Eddie. Eddie owns a bakery in the Boyle Heights part of Los Angeles. This is no ordinary man in an ordinary bakery. This culinary genius makes the world better one corn kernel at a time. Eddie met us as we were raiding his shop one and two at a time to buy pastries that were all to die for. Eddie being the great guy that he was struck up some conversations with us. He began asking what we are doing in the area. James, a founding member told him we were on a crawl through East LA and around and how we have the blog going. He asked to talk to me to learn a bit more.
After a brief conversation, he asked a really silly question. "Do you think you and your buddies would like a tour of my bakery and a lesson on Masa 101?" I mean really? Yes! What kind of a person would pass this up? I gathered the troops and we went in the back of his bakery as he broke down the process for making great Masa, and just to make sure you really understand, this is amazing stuff. It was so neat as he walked us through each bit of the process. I will not go into all of his trade secrets, they are his, but I'm sure if you were in the area and he had a minute, he'd give you 10, he's just that great of a man. FYI, he's also a huge Dodger fan, which is a big plus for all of us!
Corn is started in here about 600 pounds at a time. Yes, 600 pounds. This is soaked and cooked to more then double its weight. Really cool to see. It is then moved over to another part of the phase where it cooks some more and gets ready to be mashed.
From here it is put into a special masher. Tamales and tacos tortillas are made from there. Yes, tamales. Listening to Eddie talk about his tamale wrapping parties brought tears to this masa loving guy's eyes. It really made me weep. He spoke of all the different kinds of tamales and how to make them. We discussed cooking processes and the whole deal. It was one of the best parts of the trip that you just won't hear about unless you take the time to read this blog.
Eddie provides the masa at about 20-25 pounds at a time, which is about five times a day to Guisados' two locations. One is next door in Boyle Heights, the other is right by Dodger Stadium. You really need to check out Guisados and check out this bakery and say hey to Eddie from the Order of the Taco! Eddie can be found at:
2102 East Cesar E Chavez Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90033
(323) 265-2474
Thank you so much for reading, please tell your friends, STAY EXCELLENT ALL!
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