with a 1-year price guarantee. aren't you glad we switched to at&t? yes...but i want my own invisible cord. you already have one. oh. ♪ hello. welcome. welcome tower annual christmas here. our distinguished panel of judges is here. also, darlene. tell us what they'll be judging.

what kind of tamales if the folks can bring them out so we can start the process here. and then we'll introduce the judges. >> this is the best darn tamale contest. what we do is we actually, tamale companies from all over the country, from mississippi to oregon to texas and new mexico fly their tamales into us. and during the month of november we test over 100 tamales. and there are some people in the audience today that tested all 100 of those. so we have the san jose culinary school help us out with that. then we narrowed it down to 25 today malys. they were in five categories. we have a vegetarian cheese category. traditional chicken, traditional pork and beef. we have a gourmet and a sweet dessert tamale. what the people will be doing today, they'll be tasting five in each of the five categories. so they'll be getting pretty full. >> we need to mention that we are taping this show from san

pedro square market in downtown san jose. the first time we've actually taken the show on the road. we'll speak to the judges in a bit. i want to introduce them to you so you know who will be judging these tamales from across the country. cheryl is an author, a nutritionist with the show the biggest loser. next to cheryl is an international tenor of beyond celtic and river dance. he's performing in the bay area through the new year. please welcome michael. also from san jose, she is an avid golfer, just shot a 100 par at the ranch. can we say that? and she was in the golf channel's big break ireland. she is one of the judges. and finally, michael ho you lihan. an author and a public speaker and he is here to taste these gourmet todamales. >> we'll start with the vegetarian tamales first.

and i believe they'll bring them out for them. >> tell us about the history of tamales. we go through this in the past. ? >> the aztecs, the incans and the mayans, they've been around for thousands and thousands. we don't know the exact origin but we do know the mayans, when the prehispanic cultures, they would go off to war. the women would go with them. and they would cook and take care of things on their. and then the women one day decided that i think we're going to stay home. so they got that little masa and put it in a corn huks or a banana leaf. put the meat in and say here you go, you take that off to war with you. that's how tamales were born. it's the first to go food. >> and this doesn't look that tasty but you be the judge. i will let you have first dibs. >> we are doing things a little bit differently. we have a studio audience.

they will also be judging the best overall tamale. that was shipped to us from san jose and from across the country. and we have some studio audience here to watch and wish that they were able to stay we w me but we'll save some for you. in our next segment, we'll come back and speak with the judges and find out what they think about this initial tamale and get their assessment. and then we'll talk to them about the history and why they are here today. .

welcome back. we're going to speak to the judges. they've had the ability to taste two or three different kinds of tamales. cheryl forberg is an author and nutritionist with the biggest loser nbc show. a little crowded here but we'll talk around you folks. is this something you might be recommend to the participants of the biggest loser? >> particularly the second

tamale that was wrapped in a white tortilla and fried. that would probably not be on the plan. >> tell us about this show and how difficult it is to instill will and desire in the participants of the biggest loser. >> well, i think it is hard because none of us are endowed with a lot of willpower. that's why we have such an incredible obesity problem. by the time our contestants get to the show, they really, really want to get their lives and their health back so they're very motivated. >> and you wrote a book. >> i wrote a book called flavor first with recipes using the eating plan that i wrote for the show. >> and cher forberg is about to dig in. michael is a world renowned, he come from ireland. i would assume that because i think mexicans are half irish. i would assume -- >> there is absolutely nothing that compares to tamales. i don't know whether i should be up here on the platform.

i don't know whether i'm an expert or not but i know what's good. so far the first four are great. >> tell us about your performance. you're here in the bay area for, until new years. >> yeah. we're starting december 13th through january 1, right downtown in union square. there is cast of 20 singers and dancers and we're bringing a little bit of irlt ireland for a celtic christmas. >> to do what you do, how important is it to develop that diaphragm and make sure that it comes from way down here. >> well, you know, you have to be trained. but it has to sound somewhat spontaneous. i don't take it too seriously. i like to have a good time and i like everybody else to have a good time. we encourage the audience to do some singing, too. >> thank you. go ahead and enjoy the rest of your at a maly. i'm going to squeeze by you. generous to be here heating up the tamales. you were with the golf channel's

big break ireland. in fact, did you run into this guy over in ireland? >> his accent definitely brings it back. >> tell us about that. i know in the last round that you participated in, it was really windy. windy and cold and very ugly. what was that like for you? >> very unique. you can't find that here. so to be able to plan variables like that, it was great. that's irish golf to the fullest. we got to experience what they do. >> in the golf channel's big break of ireland. your favorite club? >> i like to say them all of they're all my null one clubs. you've got to be everything in the bag. >> how do you shoot a 100 par at a place like the ranch? the most difficult course in the silicon valley. >> you make putts. my game was on that day. you have those days. >> enjoy your tamale. doctor michael ho yulihan now.

why did you decide to come here and participate in this tamale contest? >> bonnie and i started bare foot wine back in 1986. in our laundry room up in sonoma county with no money and no knowledge of the industry. and we built it up to a best seller. and we use no advertising. all word of mouth. so i have a lot of respect for these entrepreneurs who are putting these tamales together today. now we go around the country and we help small businesses get to a point where they can build their business up to realize their equity in their brand. so we enjoy what we're doing here today. and we like to support small business. especially entrepreneurs. >> red wine? does it matter? >> i'm kind of a zinfindel fan myself. it goes so well with the hot

middle towns and notes that you get in the tamales. so i appreciate it. i've enjoyed all the tamales i've had so far. the vegetarian tamales are great. i feel like i can go ahead and splurge. >> go ahead. michael, thank you so much for being here. i personally prefer the ones filled with pork. it is really stuffed in there. again, you got these tamales that were shipped in from colorado, from santa fe, from oklahoma city even. >> oklahoma city, oregon, arizona. in, gosh. we get these tamales from everywhere. they get flown in from all over the country. and we taste them all. what they're -- for instance, what they're in the middle of tasting right now. we have a black bean spinach corn tamale. we have deep fried veggie tamale and black bean with soy chorizo. mushroom and sweet corn tamale with cheddar cheese and chillies

in it. we start with the vegetarian and we're moving into the chicken real soon. there are a lot of different varieties there. >> when you're judging 25 tamales is to not eat the entire sample. sample it a little bit. >> i'm telling them, pace yourselves. we didn't bring any little tummy remedies here. pace yourselves. eat a couple bites. rate them and then let us know how it is. >> and people can logon to your website to find out the categories and who the judges are. who sent them in. >> you can go to bestdarntamale.com. we'll have a list of all the locations that participated. after the show we will list the win,of each category as well. if you go to the website, you can see a whole list of all the tamale locations. >> we're halfway through this one. up next, live here on our stage. royalty. stay with us.

welcome back. to the seventh annual tamale contest. our christmas show with our judges. what are they eating? it seems like they're on their tenth one maybe? >> we're going through chicken category now. traditional home style. we might be sneaking up on the pork category now. >> we're coming to you from the san pedro market. we want to thank them for loaning us their venue. your annual ornaments, this is something that everyone ought to have. >> of course, yes. these are my ornaments. i design them. i have a company called casa q. you can go to my website and they are being carried in museum and specialty stores as well as macy's and macy's.com. so part of this, what we're showing today is we have a whole

array of items. this is part of our celebrity swag bag. all of our tasters will get these items today. and somebody from the studio audience will get one of the swag bags too as well as somebody from home. if you're at home, go to facebook.com/casaq and put i want to win a swag bag so you can win all these items. let me tell you what's in the swag bag. we have chocolates in the east bay. they make these incredible chocolates. all from south american and mexican cocoa beans. and they have different really cool different chipotle flavor. really cool flavors and different varieties. they're beautiful, too. all really stamped and look beautiful. we have runa. it is actually not a tea leaf. it is from a bark from a trunk of a tree in the amazon forest. it is very good for you. this tea. we have these, anna makes these

really cool bracelets. so everybody in the audience today will get a $25 gift certificate for that. so then we have ilaments. she makes really beautiful very traditional can different types of jewelry. they're all hand tooled silver jewelry. and then this is anna alvarado. she is an artist. she is really cool. she has all of her art is done on wooden boards and she paints it with markers. so these are copies of it and you can buy things like credit card holders or different things with her artwork as well. she has a lot of her originals, too. we have pingo. it is a calling card. then these are from cha-cha chic. our judges can look at t-shirts,

too, in their bags. then we have the glass cook top cleaner. this is really great if you have those smooth cook tops. this is really great to clean your stuff. everybody will get one of those. >> i think we're about ready for our live performance in the tamale competition, tamales from around the country. please welcome royalty. >> let's have a good time now. ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ [ applause ] to get at&t u-verse tv. time make the switch! [ female announcer ] call to get u-verse -- now with free hd -- only 25 a month for six months -- our lowest price ever. plus get up to 182 channels with hbo and cinemax free for three months. [ male announcer ] u-verse tv lets you record up to four shows at once on a single dvr.

and you can record and play back your shows from any room. plus get an hd-ready dvr included at no extra charge. [ female announcer ] call to get u-verse -- now with free hd -- only 25 a month for six months -- our lowest price ever. plus get up to 182 channels with hbo and cinemax free for three months. [ male announcer ] and u-verse tv is "highest in residential television service satisfaction" by j.d. power and associates. that's four years in a row! even upgrade to over 170 hd channels. that's more than cable. [ female announcer ] at&t u-verse: tv like you've never seen before. ♪ we have a winner, several winners. let me ask cheryl first what she thinks about what she experienced here.

>> i loved it. i didn't know a lot about how many different varieties of tamales there could be. i really loved the chicken curry in the exotic category. >> very nice. >> michael, is it going to make you sing a little louder, better maybe? >> i would worry about the stage tonight. people are going to be, i could be coughing up tamales through the whole show. it was well worth it. let me tell you. there was some gorge food there. >> thank you very much. now nina, what do you think? >> it was hard for me. i'm not very picky. so if it tastes good, it tastes good. i'm not a very good citizenritii liked the chicken. >> michael, what do you think? >> i thought they were all great. everyone of them. i particularly liked tamale 1-a from our singer over here. it was just fabulous. >> the very first one. >> yes, i loved it. >> does that go good with pino? >> actually, with that one i

would have a sauvignon. >> i do want to show all the tamales they tasted so you can see the wide variety of tamales. in the vegetarian cheese category. wally's tamales from woodland, colorado. he had the deep fried that a lot of you enjoyed. then in the home style chicken, felipa's. they're out of oklahoma city, oklahoma. >> get out of here! >> who knew owing could put it out there. >> pork and beef category. the santa fe pork. then in the fourth category which is the gourmet exotic one, boirk that was a tough one. people were really, they went back and forth between barbecued chicken. the curry chicken tamale won. then in the last category, we

had a tie breaker. so we had to bring in our special tie breaker judge. where is she? bonnie? can you jump in here? why don't you go along -- >> where do you want me? >> so bonnie is also a bare foot wine founder. and we pulled her in because every once in a while we get these tie breakers. spicy pumpkin won. for the overall tamale when we added up everybody's, the pineapple coconut. so i must say that the spicy pumpkin tamale lover, lore ena had a pineapple raisin tamale. that was the overall local winner. >> thank you so much. we do want to thank those who made this show possible at san pedro square market, the folks here at the market who made this possible, the job corps culinary

school for being here. parsley, sage, rosemary and wine. over here by the folks up here. and who else? who are we forgetting here? the staff at the nbc bay area. quite a few interns here. and all the production staff that came out here for our seventh annual best darn tamale competition. >> we had laurie and lupe to help us add up the results in a hurry. >> thank you all for being here in our seventh annual best darn today maly contest on comunidad del valle show. see where else they might be shipping them from. where can they go for the final results? >> bestdarntamale.com. we'll have all the companies who participated here today. i must say that you know, it's really hard. asle of you saurks it , asle of

hard to choose a tamale. i never knew there were so many tamales out there. you're used to the home style today malys. the whole list of tamales and everybody who is a finalist is really a winner. they are really, really great tamales. it was hard for us to narrow it down to 25 and hard to choose one. >> thank you all for watching. this show will reair on new years morning. [ female announcer ] help i need a holiday party idea.

mmm... pillsbury crescent wrapped brie just unroll, wrap the brie and bake. it's so easy. now this might even impress aunt martha. pillsbury crescent wrapped brie. holiday ideas made easy. in 15 minutes, [ female announcer ] you call that bread? you can serve some warmth with your bread. and some flavor with your bread. and some layers with your bread. if you're serving bread honey, then serve it. grands! dinner ideas made easy.