Duncan Switch, the popular Street Market featuring local vendors on the third Saturday of each month, has been dormant for a while due to Covid-19 restrictions. The street market, sponsored by Duncanville Chamber of Commerce, returns to Main and Center Streets in downtown Duncanville Aug. 15. Hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
There’s good news for tamale fans, too. Jon Hernandez of Casa de Masa pop-up fame is back with his delicious homemade tamales in a variety of tantalizing flavors. Special discount prices ($20 a dozen) are available for pre-orders through Thursday at 4 p.m. Send order information to jonhernandez74@gmail.com.
Jon Hernandez
Hernandez learned how to make tamales from his grandmother, Emilia, as a six-year-old in El Campo, a town in southeast Texas. His family owned a Tex-Mex restaurant there, where he also worked as a teenager. His grandmother made the restaurant’s tamales “into her late 80’s. She lived to 100 years,” Hernandez said.
Duncanville reminds him of his hometown of El Campo, Hernandez said. He’s been in Dallas since 2011, after moving from Houston. He worked as a chef at Oddfellows in Bishop Arts several years, and used their kitchen to prepare his Casa de Mara pop-ups. Duncan Switch was the first market to invite him to bring his pop-up tamale stand to their market four years ago, he said.
While Hernandez has experimented with a variety of tamale fillings to sell as a side business, accumulating over two dozen recipes, he only brings six varieties to his pop-up stands. Casa de Masa offers these six types of tamales for Duncan Switch Street Market this Saturday. The tamales are vacuum sealed in six packs so you can mix two flavors to make a dozen.
Duncan Switch Tamales
Abuela’s (from his grandmother’s recipe and still his best-seller):Ground beef and pork mix, red chile, jalapeno and herbs. Pork Phat: slow roasted green chile pork. Black Jack: black bean, jack cheese and jalapeno. Queso & Rajas: Oaxaca cheese with charred poblanos. Chicken Phat: green chile chicken with jack cheese. Virtuous Veggie: zucchini, carrots, squash, kale, roasted corn, and red bell pepper.
Other favorite Duncan Switch vendors returning Saturday are Cert, EQ Custom Made Jewelry, Esme’s Badazzled Chicas, and Jeri’s Boutique. Also featured are Jesus and Me, Maxxsave, Pynk Pit BBQ, Sandra’s Dazzling Jewelry, Scentsy, and Tenselense Concessions. The Garden of Feedin’, The Sheet Guy, and Wellow Peak Wellness are also featured.
Visitors to Duncan Switch Street Market are asked to wear face masks and maintain six feet distance in accordance with Dallas County requirements. They are also asked to carry hand sanitizer with them.
