Birthday Cupcake from Heirloom Bakery
I’m Dr. Perez, an assistant professor at CSUDH. My majors were in English for my BA, MA and PhD. I finished my PhD in 2011 at USC.
My food selfie is one I took of my birthday cupcake from Heirloom Bakery in South Pasadena. It’s a homemade (well, cafe-made), grown-up version of a Hostess Cupcake. It was excellent.
My favorite food, at least for today and coming out of the holiday season are tamales. I seriously love tamales and not only because they are delicious (which they are) but because of their indigenous roots in the Americas and their associations for me with home, family and the Christmas holidays. Unwrapping a tamale, hot from the steamer and almost burning my fingers is a joy. I like all kinds of tamales, sweet and savory, wrapped in corn or banana leaves, meat or vegetarian. That said, when faced with a variety of tamale choices, my first pick is almost always red pork. There’s something about the sweetness of the corn, the meatiness of the pork and the spiciness of the red chile that makes my mouth water.
This is the second time I’ve taught this class and am looking forward to getting to know all of you.
Well, we’ve already met. Thank God that there are vegetarian tamales. I prefer the chili and cheese tamales best. Also, sweet tamales. There are a few places in South Gate and neighboring Lynwood that make very good tamales. I don’t know about you but, I don’t wait for Christmas to buy them. Oh, and yes, must have coffee with them. ?