A mother-son team spice up Boston Public Market with mole and tamales

Boston Globe

20-05-2025

Why did you start Mr. Tamole?
Coming to Boston, there was Mexican food, but it was always tacos, burritos, right? There were no tamales. So we decided to bring tamales to the Boston area, and then we also decided to include our mole. It's from Puebla, Mexico, so it's a mole poblano. This is a recipe passed down through families, to my grandmother and then to my mother. It's very dear to us. We've now made it so that it has no major allergens, and we're able to serve it at the Boston Public Market.
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What brought you to Boston?
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I came [to the United States] with my family when I was 7, because my dad had some type of scientific project with UMass Amherst, building a telescope. He was a computer scientist. This was a government project between the United States and Mexico, and it ran through the University of Massachusetts.
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After being here for more than four years, we kind of just got adapted to this area, and so we decided to stay in Amherst.
That's Bueno Y Sano territory.
Yes. There's good Mexican food around Amherst. We actually get tortillas from a store that I just recently found out is no longer active, but they're selling their tortillas: Mi Tierra.
How did your business with your mom come together?
I went to Roxbury Community College for one year before finishing up at UMass Amherst. I wanted to come back [to Boston]. I worked a little bit at odd jobs and also sold life insurance. I got bored of that; I've always wanted to own my own business.
I saw the Boston area didn't have as good Mexican food as some other places — and no tamales.
I thought the easiest way for someone young and with little capital was to get a food cart. We did a lot of farmers' markets and events, testing out our tamales to the public, and everyone loved them. We got our LLC. We got a lot of help from JPNDC (Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp.), and then from CommonWealth Kitchen, and Lawyers for Civil Rights. They all helped us out incorporating our business and getting everything ready to go.
Tacos from Mr. Tamole.
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It was a group effort. Everyone was very welcoming and helpful. And at Boston Public Market, all the employees, all the business owners, all the customers, everyone's just welcoming. It's a very nice community. It's been a great change from being outdoors to being inside.
What's it like to work with your mom?
At first it was very hectic, getting started and doing the farmers' markets and learning from mistakes. She says that we can fight, but we can't get divorced.
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Does she boss you around?
She's the boss. She's my mom at the end of the day. She likes to take control and make sure everything is done how she likes it — not in an authoritative way. She's a perfectionist.
What makes your recipes special?
They're passed down from family members. I wish I would have known the story of how the [mole] recipe was passed down from my great-grandmother. My grandmother is kind of in her last days, but I wish I would have talked to her more about the recipe.
My grandmother brought it down from 32 ingredients to 26, and I believe she brought it down to make it easier on the stomach. It's interesting. And now we make it with 22 ingredients, so from 26 to 22, but it still has the same taste.
What makes the taste distinctive? How do we know we're eating Mr. Tamole mole?
We tell the customers all the time — and we have it written down on the chalkboard — sweet, spicy, and salty, everything in between. Nothing overtakes it; it's hard to explain.
What
are the key ingredients?
Peanuts, almonds, sesame seeds, chocolate, lard, plantains, sugar, black pepper, four different types of chilies — some you roast, some you boil. … I probably should have asked my mother before doing this interview!
Where do you eat when you're not working?
When I'm not working, I'm usually around the Jamaica Plain area. Sweet Rice in Jamaica Plain is good, and Purple Cactus and Chilacates. And my mother does love Chinatown.
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Do you cook at home?
It's kind of tough. I usually go to Costco, and I have Costco food. At one point, I was really into Caesar salads. But currently, right now, I'm just eating lazily, which is not good.
What's your favorite snack?
Cape Cod potato chips. And I also like ice pops, the lemon flavor. That might be my favorite snack.
What do you wish the Boston food scene had more of?
More Mexican food.
What do you think Boston does really well?
Brazilian food. We have a lot of everything: Chinese food, Italian. The Mexican food is good, too — it's just kind of repetitive, with burritos. But I love burritos. We didn't ever eat burritos until we came to the United States. But I love them; the Mexican scene just needs a little bit more of what Mexico has to offer, like Mexican street corn. Now, there are vendors here doing Mexican street corn, and people love Mexican street corn.
What do you put in your burrito?
Steak is always good, or pork, even though I try to eat healthy as I get older. Chicken is good, but steak is better. Pork is as good as steak, in moderation. And I do it with rice and beans.
You know, one company that's really good — I actually worked there for a little bit — was Chipotle. I worked there in college, when I was at UMass. I wouldn't say it's authentic, but it's good.
Any inside secrets? Why don't they give me enough guacamole?
The manager had his little book of what he had to do when onboarding someone. It was just structured. I guess there are little touches that you do to make it authentic; I guess Chipotle misses or doesn't include some of those. But they're also [making food] for customers in the United States.
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Us, too. We don't make our food spicy. People are always asking about our mole: Is it spicy? So that's why we say it's sweet, spicy, and salty.
I will say, though, the red Chipotle salsa is pretty spicy. What's the best piece of advice your mom has given you about cooking?
It's somewhat of a little secret, but making enchiladas: A lot of people, when making enchiladas, just start rolling up the tortilla. We tell them to first get a little bit of oil, put it in a pan, warm it up a little bit, and then get the tortilla in the oil warmed up so when you roll it up, it doesn't break. It rolls up a lot better and has a lot more flavor. Things like that.
But growing up eating our food on the daily, when you're a little kid, you sometimes get sick of it. Sometimes I would go to school and trade my plate for a pizza.
Growing up in Amherst, what was your favorite place to eat?
Bueno Y Sano. La Veracruzana. My grandmother's from Veracruz. They have good food. But, also, Antonio's is a really good pizzeria. The food scene in Amherst is actually pretty good.
Last but not least: What's one food that you absolutely cannot stand?
Mushrooms and raisins. My cousin would tell me that they're dead flies.
Interview
was edited and condensed.
Kara Baskin can be reached at