The Two 90 Food Court is easy to miss along a rough-and-tumble stretch of Jones Road just east of Highway 290 in Jersey Village.
During rush hour, though, if you happen to be stuck waiting to get onto 290 and your windows are rolled down, you may detect the faint smell of hickory wood smoke and a fragrance of steamed corn husks.
CC’s Hot Tamales & BBQ
Two 90 Food Court
8131 Jones Road, Jersey Village; 832-735-0506
Open Wed.-Sun.
These are the unmistakable olfactory calling-cards for CC’s Hot Tamales and BBQ, a small food trailer manned by Mississippi-raised pitmaster and tamale-maker Shintri Simpson.
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Simpson practices the art and tradition of making Delta-style tamales.
This style of tamale originated in the Mississippi Delta region of that state, bounded by Memphis Tennessee to the north and city of Vicksburg in the south.
There is no definitive history of how tamales – an undeniably Mexican cuisine – came to the Deep South. One theory is that migrant Mexican-American laborers arrived in this area in the early 20th century to work in the cotton harvests. The tamale traditions they brought proved to be a portable and efficient source of food for the workers in the fields, including Black Americans.
Indeed, Black Americans became the standard-bearers for this style of tamale in the 20th century. None other than Robert Johnson, the great American bluesman from the Delta region, wrote about these tamales in his 1936 song “They’re Red Hot.”
Delta-style tamales differ from their Mexican counterparts in several ways. They are thinner and use corn meal rather than masa. They are often simmered rather than steamed, and contain more diverse fillings than the typical pork-laden Mexican variety.
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“I call them ‘premium’ or ‘exotic’ tamales,” says Simpson of his many creative flavors including Cajun chicken, smoked brisket and beef boudin, as well as a shrimp, broccoli and spinach version.
He learned the craft from the many tamale-makers in his family, specifically his late uncle Perry Gibson.
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Simpson came to Houston 20 years ago to work in oil and gas, and began serving tamales to friends and co-workers not long after he got here. He eventually started selling tamales from a pop-up stand in Katy. He then acquired a food trailer and is now a full-time tamale-purveyor at the Two 90 Food Court (the name of his trailer, “CC’s”, is a holdover from a previous fried catfish business called “Catfish Corner”).
He also serves other dishes including a barbecue sandwich as well as smoked turkey legs.
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“At the place where I first started selling tamales, the owner suggested I sell barbecue too because it was a big seller,” says Simpson. From there, he began to combine the traditions of Delta-style tamales and Texas barbecue.
His signature dish is the smoked brisket tamale. It’s an addictive combination of smoked-and-chopped brisket wrapped in savory cornmeal with an occasional flash of sweet barbecue sauce with which he mops the brisket when it’s cooking.
That said, he doesn’t serve his tamales with the usual red and green sauces that come with Mexican tamales. Taking a cue from Texas barbecue tradition, Simpson believes that great tamales don’t need sauce. The catchphrase on his logo is, “The proof is in the tamales.”
And he certainly makes great tamales judging from the shelf of trophies behind him in his trailer. Every October, Simpson goes back to Mississippi to participate in the Delta Hot Tamale Festival in the city of Greenville. In recent years he’s won numerous awards there, including first place in the commercial meat tamales category.
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CC’s combines Mississippi Delta-style tamales and Texas barbecue
14
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21.03.2024
The Two 90 Food Court is easy to miss along a rough-and-tumble stretch of Jones Road just east of Highway 290 in Jersey Village.
During rush hour, though, if you happen to be stuck waiting to get onto 290 and your windows are rolled down, you may detect the faint smell of hickory wood smoke and a fragrance of steamed corn husks.
CC’s Hot Tamales & BBQ
Two 90 Food Court
8131 Jones Road, Jersey Village; 832-735-0506
Open Wed.-Sun.
These are the unmistakable olfactory calling-cards for CC’s Hot Tamales and BBQ, a small food trailer manned by Mississippi-raised pitmaster and tamale-maker Shintri Simpson.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Simpson practices the art and tradition of making Delta-style tamales.
This style of tamale originated in the Mississippi Delta region of that state, bounded by Memphis Tennessee to the north and city of Vicksburg in the south.
There is no definitive history of how tamales – an........
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