Tamalittle, Little Rock: Pastes—Cornish Pasties via Hidalgo

Passing through Little Rock, Arkansas a few weeks ago we were lucky to read about Tamalittle, a newly opened restaurant serving the pastes and tamales of Hidalgo in Central Mexico. This might be the only place in the US with a drive-thru paste window.



Pastes are similar to empanadas but as their name suggests, share a lineage with Cornish pasties. Miners from Cornwall migrating to the Americas didn't end up only in the Upper Midwest; they went to Mexico too, and Hidalgo's pastes reflect the local influences. No disrespect to rutabagas and barely-seasoned ground beef but I have to say I prefer pastes to pasties.





One of their more traditional pastes is known as the minero (miner), with beef, potatoes and parsley. We chose a more "fusiony" version, filled with the ubiquitous Mexican hash of chorizo and potato. Excellent. The chicken filling in the other was quite distinctly seasoned and excellent too.

Tamalittle's tamales somewhat resemble those of Oaxaca: a flattened rectangle of masa is topped, rather than stuffed, with meat and sauce. Here's a piece of one that came wrapped in cornhusks, topped with chicken and green sauce.





The real star was that oaxaqueño, wrapped in banana leaves and topped with a delicious mole and a few leaves of hierba buena, whose minty presence subtly permeated the entire tamal. Tamalittle serves a variety of sweet pastes and tamales, which we didn't try. Some sound intriguing, such as pastes filled with blackberries and cream cheese.

I hope the good people of Little Rock appreciate how lucky they are to have Tamalittle and support this worthy little business.

Tamalittle
102 Markham Park Dr
Little Rock AR
501-217-9085
https://www.facebook.com/tamlittlemex (menu can be found here)

Wow, great report. Thanks, Peter! If we are ever in Little Rock...

Mind blowing. Do they still eat pasties in Cornwall? Wonder if they know there are Little Rock style Hidalgo style Cornish pasties out there. Bill Clinton, the Stanley Brothers song and this is all I ever really knew about Little Rock. Now there's reason to stop.

Fortunately, they are beginning to get some local press:

It’s always refreshing to find a restaurant in Little Rock doing something new. Rather than load its menu down with the requisite chips, cheese dip and big taco plates, Tamalittle focuses on just a handful of traditional Mexican favorites and executes them well. Open for a few months now, the restaurant still seems slow to get a steady crowd. But with fast and extremely friendly service (seriously, we haven’t spotted the owner without a smile), they may find a following soon.