'I felt stupid': Terrible tamales injure pride, not just wallet

John Cardenas pushes a pan of bad tamales and bag of masa along the ground while waiting in line outside Amapola Deli and Market in Downey for a refund.

By Ruben VivesStaff Writer

Dec. 28, 2016 5:05 PM PT

Patty Davila said there was a lot riding on her Christmas dinner, including pride.

She didn’t cook often, and in the past she and her sisters made pozole and tamales together. This year Davila, 52, of Santa Fe Springs, decided to go solo and make the tamales on her own.

She cooked her meat in garlic and salt and made her chile pasilla sauce. Then she scooped the prepared masa and other ingredients into corn husks before cooking them in her new pot.

But when she checked on the tamales, Davila said, “they were jelly-like. They were falling apart.”

“Was it the pot?” she wondered. “Or maybe it was the corn leaves. I left them in the water too long?”

The centerpiece of her Christmas meal ended up being fried chicken and nachos.

“Who has nachos on Christmas?” Davila said. “You can imagine everybody was making fun of me. I felt stupid.”

The case of the funky Christmas tamales continued Wednesday as Davila and dozens of Amapola Deli and Market customers in Downey returned once again for refunds on a supply of bad masa.

More than 300 customers lined up at the well-known market — some holding bags of the ground cornmeal — to collect refunds after the grocer ran out of cash on Monday.

Among the crowd was Virginia Olivarez, 62, who drove from Santa Ana that morning with a bad batch of tamales she made using the store’s masa.

“They said they were going to make this refund process easier,” she said. “That doesn’t appear to be the case.”

An aluminum pan full of ruined tamales outside Amapola Deli and Market in Downey.

Olivarez, who had been standing in line since 8 a.m., said she spent about $146 on masa and other ingredients.

Olivarez said she came with a copy of her bank statement as proof of purchase, which was one of several ways to obtain a refund.

Olivarez said she has been purchasing masa at Amapola for four years and never had a problem until this year.

She said she purchased her masa on Dec. 24 and began cooking her tamales that day around 1 p.m. By 1 a.m. Christmas Day, the tamales didn’t look like they had been cooked.

She said her daughter tried one and spit the tamale back out.

“We ended up eating nothing that day,” she said. “Christmas dinner was ruined.”

She drove to the store Monday after learning of the bad batch of masa but couldn’t get a refund. She returned Wednesday hoping for better luck.

“I’m frustrated. We’re all frustrated here,” Olivarez said.

Hundreds of people line up outside Amapola Deli and Market in Downey looking to receive refunds for bad masa they had purchased.

Davila said she received a text message from her sister telling her that it wasn’t her fault that her tamales turned out terrible, because the store had sold bad masa.

“I never thought it was the masa. It never crossed my mind,” Davila said. “I’ve been buying masa here for 10 to 12 years and I’ve never had a problem. For 50 years this place is known for making the best masa; it has the best flavor — you just can’t go wrong.”

Davila said she was seeking a $105 refund.

In line, person after person said they second-guessed themselves first before they even considered that the masa was bad.

Mayra Florez, 32, of Downey, has been making tamales for most of her life. She used to make them with her mother and then with her family. But the tamale fiasco ended up making her doubt her cooking skills. She spent long hours cooking the tamales as she hosted dinner at her home for the first time, but they looked as if they hadn’t been cooked.

She said her guests kept passing up on eating the tamales. Her confidence as a cook took a blow.

“Maybe I just can’t make tamales,” she said. “I thought, ‘Did I add too much water to the chili? Maybe there were too many tamales in one pot?’ ”

She switched the tamales from larger pots to smaller ones but the result was the same: bad tamales. She said her mother in-law also had the same problem.

When she learned through Facebook that the store had sold bad masa, she felt a sense of relief. She lined up to get more than $100 refunded.

Delfina Garcia, 52, of Pico Rivera, said she found herself blaming her mother at first.

“I told my mom she put too much water in the pot,” she said.

She said her elderly mother felt terrible about the bad batch of tamales and spent most of the night in the bedroom.

The next day she felt relief when Garcia told her it wasn’t her but the masa that was the problem.

Luis Alvarado, a spokesman for Amapola, said the market was established in 1961 and had never encountered this problem before.

He said the family that owns the market has been doing the right thing from the start, giving refunds to people who purchased the bad product. He said they are cooperating with Los Angeles County health inspectors and the national vendor who supplied the corn.

L.A. County health officials said three complaints were made against the market related to the masa incident.

Alvarado said all four Amapola stores were affected by the bad masa, but the Downey and South L.A. stores had the most customer complaints.

Alvarado said they’re giving instant refunds to anyone who purchased masa on Dec. 23 and Dec. 24. Additionally, they will refund up to $100 for the other ingredients used in making the tamales.

“We are working as expediently as humanly possible to make sure those claims are processed in the next 7 to 10 days,” Alvarado said. “We understand the frustration, and we know that ... people expect high quality products for their seasonal festivities.”

While some customers said they don’t plan to come back, that won’t be the case for Garcia. She said that while Christmas dinner was ruined, it didn’t spoil the festivities that evening. They had nachos and pizza.

“There were no tamales, but there was plenty of tequila and nachos,” she said.

Click here for a Spanish version of this story

ALSO

Debbie Reynolds rushed to the hospital after falling ill; condition unknown

Series of earthquakes hits near California-Nevada border

Rose Parade plans more barriers in wake of truck terrorism in Europe

UPDATES:

5:05 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from more people seeking refunds for bad masa.

This article was originally published at 3:35 p.m.