May 5, 2025 • 15 mins
Happy Cinco de Mayo! To celebrate, Zaron Burnett is here with a mini-episode about the frozen treat that is quietly and quickly taking over the world.
*
Hosted by Zaron Burnett, Dana Schwartz, and Jason English
Written by Dave Roos
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington
Mixing and Mastering by Jonathan Washington
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is an iHeart original.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The Mexican state of Michuwa Khan is not what most
people picture when they think of Mexico. Michuwa Kan sits
more than a mile above sea level, where the air
is cool and temperate. So instead of beaches and palm trees,
picture rolling mountains and pine forests. Driving through the Michuwa
Khan countryside, you'll pass avocado orchards, fields of white corn
(00:40):
waiting to be ground into tortillas, and roadsides stands selling
Tothia cheese, a crumbly salty regional delicacy. The scenery is
interrupted by the occasional village. Most are humble and unremarkable
until you arrive at Docombo, a small town with a
big reputation in Mexico. Standing triumphantly at the entrance to
(01:02):
Do Coombo is a.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Thirty foot statue.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's not a venerated with religious figure or a popular hero.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
From the Mexican Revolution.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It's a popsicle, a towering cherry red popsicle, complete with
a wooden stick. There's a large bite taken out of
the popsicle, and inside that hole is a blue globe
representing the Earth. That too is covered with smaller images
of popsicles and ice cream cones like so many rainbow sprinkles. Why,
you might ask, did the residence of a random Mexican
(01:33):
town erect a shrine to the popsicle? Because the combo
is the birthplace of the Paletta, the proudly Mexican frozen
treat that is quietly and quickly taking over the world.
This is a very special Sinko de Mayo edition of
very special episodes the Popsicle Kings of Mexico.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Happy Cinco de Mayo. I'm Jason English. We will get
you back to Zaren Burnett in a moment, But to
Mark day O. We have a short episode this week
written by Dave Russ, who's one of our regulars. Dave
and I went to college together. We didn't know each other.
He was a senior when I was a freshman, but
I knew his work. I knew his writing because he
was the humor columnist at our college newspaper and I
(02:23):
was a big fan. The column he wrote that sticks
with me all these years later was about I aversion
on campus and how to know when someone is avoiding
acknowledging you, and some strategies that Dave employed to avoid
acknowledging others. Fast forward many years and I figure out
that he is working on stuff you should know here
(02:44):
at iHeart, the biggest podcast ever. He's on the research team,
and so we reconnected, I mean really connected for the
first time, and it's great to finally get to work
with him here on very special episodes. We'll have more
of Dave stuff this summer, but for now, I'm going
to kick it back over to Aaron.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Every town in Mexico, big or small, at least one
paletta shop or pelletaia as they're called.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
You can spot a paleta ria.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
By the festive chest freezers pushed up to the sidewalk
containing rainbow colored rows of rectangular popsicles.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
There's so many of these everywhere that it's also become
almost an essential part of every decent town plaza. And
you don't have a good balataria on your plaza, your
plaza is not quite up to snuff.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That's journalist Sam Pugnonees, who wrote about paletas in his
terrific book True Tales from Another Mexico.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Everywhere you go, I've seen this all over Mexico. From
a border down way south of Mexico City.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You see that on Sundays.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
The balataria is the place where families take a walk
around the plaza, and it's just one of these wonderful
things that a family stops in the ice cream shop
and gets, you know, ice cream or fruit juices or
whatever on a hot Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
By one count there are more than thirty thousand pileta
shops in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Thirty thousand.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Wherever you go from Mexico City to Kankun to Tijuana,
most of those paleta shops will have the word michu
Wa Kan somewhere in their name. La Michua Kana, floor
de Michua Kan, lian da Michua Kan. That's because the
booming Mexican palleta industry traces its humble origins back to
the state of Nichua Kan, and specifically to the town
(04:37):
of Tukombo. In the nineteen forties, millions of Mexican men
from small towns like to Coombo traveled north for work.
They were hired by American farms as part of the
Brasero work program during World War Two, but two young
men from to Combo decided to stay put and try
their luck in Mexico City, the fast growing capital. Augustine
(04:58):
Andrere and Ignacio Alcazar left to Combo separately, and both
found work in ice cream shops. Andrere, who was orphaned
at Si, saved up enough money to open his own
palleta shop in Mexico City in nineteen forty one. Alcazar
followed suit, and words spread quickly into Combo that there
was money to be made in paletas. By the nineteen fifties,
(05:21):
there was a steady paletta pipeline from Tacumbo to Mexico City.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
All these people from this one little town at Nichuakan
began to come out to Mexico City, which makes sense
because Mexico City was the country's largest consumer market and
it was a very very working class place.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Pioneers like Andradre and Alcazar built mini palleta empires. They
lent money to follow the combents to open up more
and more shops. Andrare eventually opened one hundred and seventy
seven paletrias in Mexico City alone.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
The real business became selling popsicle stores. You start a store,
you hire some people, you sell it eventually to those
same employees who have now learned how to manage it,
or you sell it to your cousin or your cousins,
you know, a brother in law or whatever. They had
a certain amount of trust because they're all from the
same town. Everyone knew where each other's parents lived. So
(06:16):
that became the business and that is why it really
began to spread and multiply, like Amiba, that business model
all across Mexico.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
From Mexico City, Tacombin's took their palettas to Puebla, Guadalajara, Zacatecas.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
These weren't franchises.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Each Paleta Star was independently owned and operated, but the
Tucombo connection was clear from the name outside.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Florida to Kombo, Lindo, Mitracan, Pallet La Metrocana. It's all
the same business model and started by some guys in
the nineteen fifties from this little town called Tokombo and Metrocan.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Something as delicious and refreshing as a paleta cannot be
contained by international borders, and the paleta pipeline was about
to flow.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
North to the United States in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Harado Ramirez grew up just a few miles from to
Combo and Kotia, the town famous for its crumbly cheese.
In his twenties or other, moved to San Diego and
once he.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Was in the States, you know, he was in the
service industry, working a lot of restaurants, and finally he said,
you know, I don't want this to be how I retire,
like he kind of wanted to build something his own.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
That's Jennifer Clausim Kiros talking about her uncle Harrado, who
opened to Combo ice Cream in San Diego in the
early two thousands.
Speaker 6 (07:41):
He noticed that every time you would travel back to Mexico,
he was still so drawn to all the ice creams.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
In the paletas in the city of Tocumbo and Kotiha,
And so when he came back, he said, WHYMA opened
something up here that's similar to the places that I
used to work out when I was younger, and the
flavors that we seek every time we go traveling back
to Mexico.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It was one of the first authentic micho wa kan
style of paletrias in southern California, and in classic to
Combo fashion. He brought his family into the business. Jennifer
and her brother Ricardo Kiros opened their own to Combo
ice Cream store in Anaheim in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
We want to make sure we're keeping it as authentic
as possible to what our uncle sought to do in
the beginning.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
And also to the pakoombo recipes that he's so hard
work to get to resemble the true flavors of that
town and our state as well.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
If you've never had a Palita before, don't walk into
to Combo ice Cream expecting a popsicle.
Speaker 7 (08:42):
Ricardo says, popsicle has usually been well in America traditionally
just all sugar food coloring, like there's like.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
A gimmick to it.
Speaker 7 (08:51):
Balletas are real ingredients, usually real fresh fruit, real dairy.
Like there's no like funny stuff going on. It's pretty straightforward. Oh.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
Palita also isn't afraid of texture, so they'll have nuts,
mom don't have Like we're people seeing real fruit and
it's not so blended in that you lose the texture
of the fruit.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
It's like just blows people away and we're like like, whoa,
the strawberry actually has strawberries in it, you know, like
like the watermelon has watermelon, and they're.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Like, yeah, who knew watermelon and strawberry are good first time,
play it safe Baltas, but come on, it's sinco tomayo.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
What are some of the more adventurous flavors?
Speaker 5 (09:31):
So, the dairy ones are pistacho Noise, which is lot.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Nut, autosponechi, which is my favorite. We make the atto
sponachin house for those.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
What else do we have big big from like my
dad's thin treat.
Speaker 6 (09:46):
We have vanilla with membryo, which is like a fruit
leather candy that on like some people eat.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
And then the non dairy ones.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
We have lime maracle ya, which is packing fruit nanse,
which is one of those little like cult fruits that
are kind of.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
Smelly and they have a very specific taste and they're
more savory.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
What about mango, there's gotta be mango. Oh well, yeah,
we have three mangos.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Hold on, We've got mango mango bong.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Chile, which is the more savory spicy one, and then
we have mango Punchamoi, which is like the most popular one.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
With a polita shop named Toakombo, we're going to attract
customers from Michua kan and to impress those folks, Ricardo says,
you need a legit mutu wa kan flavor you need chongos,
kind of like how.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
Tapumbo is known for making ice cream where parents are
from Kotillas meant for making cheese.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Samura is made for making.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
Chungos, which are pretty much just the sweetened milk curds
and it's a big, big ten flavor. Getting me chaka
and ice cream and poleta wise, So that was the
staple from day one.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
The Combo ice Cream makes their own chongos in house,
none of that canned stuff. So do their chungos poletas
pass the test?
Speaker 7 (11:04):
Telling the story now it sounds like I'm making it
up or just like reciting like a Hallmark movie or something,
because we've had like older people come in and literally
be brought to tears, Like when I was a child,
my parents would take me and this is exactly what
it tastes like. And I've been in this country for
like sixty plus years, i haven't gone back. I haven't
(11:26):
gone back home, and like it's it's just bringing back
all these memories. And it was hard for us to
believe that something so like almost insignificant could like stir
up that level of emotion, but it did, and on
numerous occasions.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Yeah, like Sean says, it's that ratitude moment where you get.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
That, you know, sense of your childhood. That's really cool
to see.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Jennifer and Ricardo have never been to Ta Combo, but
they hope to make the pilgrimage one day to the
birthplace of the Palleta. Sam Cagnone is visited to Combo
several times, including during the Faerie de la Peleta, to
Combo's annual popsicle fair every December.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
And they had all the street lights with popsicle shades
over them.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I mean, it was just all about.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
The popsicle, honoring the popsicle for all it had done
for them to allow them to, you know, advance economically
and culturally. And you saw all these gorgeous houses, some
of them big, some of them not so big, all
of them painted different colors, so much so that I
remember I stood up on a hill at one point
and it hit me that looking down on the village,
(12:34):
it looked like a whole bunch of multi colored popsicles,
all crammed together in a refrigerated case. You know, it
was an amazing thing.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
This week we're celebrating Sinco DeMaio easily the biggest Mexican
holiday in America, even though no one knows what it's
really about. Sinko Demayo is not Mexican Independence Day. That's
September sixteenth, and it wasn't invented by Don Julio to
sell more tequila, although sometimes it feels that way. Sinco
de Mayo commemorates a historic military victory. On May fifth,
(13:05):
eighteen sixty two, rag tag Mexican army defeated the elite
French forces of Emperor Napoleon the Third at the Battle
of Puebla.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yes, the French tried to invade Mexico, but that's a
whole different story.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
When Mexicans living in California and Nevada heard about the
underdog victory, they threw spontaneous parades and fiestas and parties
that became an annual celebration every May fifth. Maybe it's
a stretch, but we think the story of Tacombo and
the Paletta qualifies as another underdog victory. Thanks to some
hard working, risk taking folks from this tiny town and
(13:41):
michu A Kan, the Paletta has conquered Mexico and is
steadily taking over the world. There are thousands of Paleta
shops now in the United States. Jennifer and Ricardo say
there are at least a dozen in Anaheim alone. One
palleta chain just opened a store in Dubai. So if
you're looking for something a little different this Cinco de Mayo,
(14:02):
put down your nachos and.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Corona light for a second.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Open up your favorite map sap type in balletas or
damcha wakana or even do coombo. Chances are an underdog
entrepreneur has opened up Paleta shop or two or three
right in your town.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And for the record, you can't go wrong with mangochile.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
It's the perfect balance of sweet and spicy valise.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Sinco de Mayo.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Very special episodes is made by some very special people,
like I mentioned up top. Today's mini episode is written
by Dave Russ. Dave's last VSSE was Night of one
Thousand Weddings back in March, and we'll have more day
this summer. This show is hosted by Zaren Burnett, Danish Schwartz,
and Jason English. Our producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and
(14:53):
sound design by Jonathan Washington. Additional editing by Mary Doo.
Original music by Elise McCoy. Show logo by Lucy Kintonia.
Our executive producer is Jason English.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
To email the show, you.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Can reach us at Very Special Episodes at gmail dot com.
We'll see you back here next week for the night
the Globetrotters lost. Very Special Episodes is a production of
iHeart Podcasts.
This is an iHeart original.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The Mexican state of Michuwa Khan is not what most
people picture when they think of Mexico. Michuwa Kan sits
more than a mile above sea level, where the air
is cool and temperate. So instead of beaches and palm trees,
picture rolling mountains and pine forests. Driving through the Michuwa
Khan countryside, you'll pass avocado orchards, fields of white corn
(00:40):
waiting to be ground into tortillas, and roadsides stands selling
Tothia cheese, a crumbly salty regional delicacy. The scenery is
interrupted by the occasional village. Most are humble and unremarkable
until you arrive at Docombo, a small town with a
big reputation in Mexico. Standing triumphantly at the entrance to
(01:02):
Do Coombo is a.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Thirty foot statue.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's not a venerated with religious figure or a popular hero.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
From the Mexican Revolution.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It's a popsicle, a towering cherry red popsicle, complete with
a wooden stick. There's a large bite taken out of
the popsicle, and inside that hole is a blue globe
representing the Earth. That too is covered with smaller images
of popsicles and ice cream cones like so many rainbow sprinkles. Why,
you might ask, did the residence of a random Mexican
(01:33):
town erect a shrine to the popsicle? Because the combo
is the birthplace of the Paletta, the proudly Mexican frozen
treat that is quietly and quickly taking over the world.
This is a very special Sinko de Mayo edition of
very special episodes the Popsicle Kings of Mexico.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Happy Cinco de Mayo. I'm Jason English. We will get
you back to Zaren Burnett in a moment, But to
Mark day O. We have a short episode this week
written by Dave Russ, who's one of our regulars. Dave
and I went to college together. We didn't know each other.
He was a senior when I was a freshman, but
I knew his work. I knew his writing because he
was the humor columnist at our college newspaper and I
(02:23):
was a big fan. The column he wrote that sticks
with me all these years later was about I aversion
on campus and how to know when someone is avoiding
acknowledging you, and some strategies that Dave employed to avoid
acknowledging others. Fast forward many years and I figure out
that he is working on stuff you should know here
(02:44):
at iHeart, the biggest podcast ever. He's on the research team,
and so we reconnected, I mean really connected for the
first time, and it's great to finally get to work
with him here on very special episodes. We'll have more
of Dave stuff this summer, but for now, I'm going
to kick it back over to Aaron.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Every town in Mexico, big or small, at least one
paletta shop or pelletaia as they're called.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
You can spot a paleta ria.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
By the festive chest freezers pushed up to the sidewalk
containing rainbow colored rows of rectangular popsicles.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
There's so many of these everywhere that it's also become
almost an essential part of every decent town plaza. And
you don't have a good balataria on your plaza, your
plaza is not quite up to snuff.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That's journalist Sam Pugnonees, who wrote about paletas in his
terrific book True Tales from Another Mexico.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Everywhere you go, I've seen this all over Mexico. From
a border down way south of Mexico City.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You see that on Sundays.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
The balataria is the place where families take a walk
around the plaza, and it's just one of these wonderful
things that a family stops in the ice cream shop
and gets, you know, ice cream or fruit juices or
whatever on a hot Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
By one count there are more than thirty thousand pileta
shops in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Thirty thousand.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Wherever you go from Mexico City to Kankun to Tijuana,
most of those paleta shops will have the word michu
Wa Kan somewhere in their name. La Michua Kana, floor
de Michua Kan, lian da Michua Kan. That's because the
booming Mexican palleta industry traces its humble origins back to
the state of Nichua Kan, and specifically to the town
(04:37):
of Tukombo. In the nineteen forties, millions of Mexican men
from small towns like to Coombo traveled north for work.
They were hired by American farms as part of the
Brasero work program during World War Two, but two young
men from to Combo decided to stay put and try
their luck in Mexico City, the fast growing capital. Augustine
(04:58):
Andrere and Ignacio Alcazar left to Combo separately, and both
found work in ice cream shops. Andrere, who was orphaned
at Si, saved up enough money to open his own
palleta shop in Mexico City in nineteen forty one. Alcazar
followed suit, and words spread quickly into Combo that there
was money to be made in paletas. By the nineteen fifties,
(05:21):
there was a steady paletta pipeline from Tacumbo to Mexico City.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
All these people from this one little town at Nichuakan
began to come out to Mexico City, which makes sense
because Mexico City was the country's largest consumer market and
it was a very very working class place.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Pioneers like Andradre and Alcazar built mini palleta empires. They
lent money to follow the combents to open up more
and more shops. Andrare eventually opened one hundred and seventy
seven paletrias in Mexico City alone.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
The real business became selling popsicle stores. You start a store,
you hire some people, you sell it eventually to those
same employees who have now learned how to manage it,
or you sell it to your cousin or your cousins,
you know, a brother in law or whatever. They had
a certain amount of trust because they're all from the
same town. Everyone knew where each other's parents lived. So
(06:16):
that became the business and that is why it really
began to spread and multiply, like Amiba, that business model
all across Mexico.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
From Mexico City, Tacombin's took their palettas to Puebla, Guadalajara, Zacatecas.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
These weren't franchises.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Each Paleta Star was independently owned and operated, but the
Tucombo connection was clear from the name outside.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Florida to Kombo, Lindo, Mitracan, Pallet La Metrocana. It's all
the same business model and started by some guys in
the nineteen fifties from this little town called Tokombo and Metrocan.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Something as delicious and refreshing as a paleta cannot be
contained by international borders, and the paleta pipeline was about
to flow.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
North to the United States in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Harado Ramirez grew up just a few miles from to
Combo and Kotia, the town famous for its crumbly cheese.
In his twenties or other, moved to San Diego and
once he.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Was in the States, you know, he was in the
service industry, working a lot of restaurants, and finally he said,
you know, I don't want this to be how I retire,
like he kind of wanted to build something his own.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
That's Jennifer Clausim Kiros talking about her uncle Harrado, who
opened to Combo ice Cream in San Diego in the
early two thousands.
Speaker 6 (07:41):
He noticed that every time you would travel back to Mexico,
he was still so drawn to all the ice creams.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
In the paletas in the city of Tocumbo and Kotiha,
And so when he came back, he said, WHYMA opened
something up here that's similar to the places that I
used to work out when I was younger, and the
flavors that we seek every time we go traveling back
to Mexico.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It was one of the first authentic micho wa kan
style of paletrias in southern California, and in classic to
Combo fashion. He brought his family into the business. Jennifer
and her brother Ricardo Kiros opened their own to Combo
ice Cream store in Anaheim in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
We want to make sure we're keeping it as authentic
as possible to what our uncle sought to do in
the beginning.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
And also to the pakoombo recipes that he's so hard
work to get to resemble the true flavors of that
town and our state as well.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
If you've never had a Palita before, don't walk into
to Combo ice Cream expecting a popsicle.
Speaker 7 (08:42):
Ricardo says, popsicle has usually been well in America traditionally
just all sugar food coloring, like there's like.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
A gimmick to it.
Speaker 7 (08:51):
Balletas are real ingredients, usually real fresh fruit, real dairy.
Like there's no like funny stuff going on. It's pretty straightforward. Oh.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
Palita also isn't afraid of texture, so they'll have nuts,
mom don't have Like we're people seeing real fruit and
it's not so blended in that you lose the texture
of the fruit.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
It's like just blows people away and we're like like, whoa,
the strawberry actually has strawberries in it, you know, like
like the watermelon has watermelon, and they're.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Like, yeah, who knew watermelon and strawberry are good first time,
play it safe Baltas, but come on, it's sinco tomayo.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
What are some of the more adventurous flavors?
Speaker 5 (09:31):
So, the dairy ones are pistacho Noise, which is lot.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Nut, autosponechi, which is my favorite. We make the atto
sponachin house for those.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
What else do we have big big from like my
dad's thin treat.
Speaker 6 (09:46):
We have vanilla with membryo, which is like a fruit
leather candy that on like some people eat.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
And then the non dairy ones.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
We have lime maracle ya, which is packing fruit nanse,
which is one of those little like cult fruits that
are kind of.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
Smelly and they have a very specific taste and they're
more savory.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
What about mango, there's gotta be mango. Oh well, yeah,
we have three mangos.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Hold on, We've got mango mango bong.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Chile, which is the more savory spicy one, and then
we have mango Punchamoi, which is like the most popular one.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
With a polita shop named Toakombo, we're going to attract
customers from Michua kan and to impress those folks, Ricardo says,
you need a legit mutu wa kan flavor you need chongos,
kind of like how.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
Tapumbo is known for making ice cream where parents are
from Kotillas meant for making cheese.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Samura is made for making.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
Chungos, which are pretty much just the sweetened milk curds
and it's a big, big ten flavor. Getting me chaka
and ice cream and poleta wise, So that was the
staple from day one.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
The Combo ice Cream makes their own chongos in house,
none of that canned stuff. So do their chungos poletas
pass the test?
Speaker 7 (11:04):
Telling the story now it sounds like I'm making it
up or just like reciting like a Hallmark movie or something,
because we've had like older people come in and literally
be brought to tears, Like when I was a child,
my parents would take me and this is exactly what
it tastes like. And I've been in this country for
like sixty plus years, i haven't gone back. I haven't
(11:26):
gone back home, and like it's it's just bringing back
all these memories. And it was hard for us to
believe that something so like almost insignificant could like stir
up that level of emotion, but it did, and on
numerous occasions.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Yeah, like Sean says, it's that ratitude moment where you get.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
That, you know, sense of your childhood. That's really cool
to see.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Jennifer and Ricardo have never been to Ta Combo, but
they hope to make the pilgrimage one day to the
birthplace of the Palleta. Sam Cagnone is visited to Combo
several times, including during the Faerie de la Peleta, to
Combo's annual popsicle fair every December.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
And they had all the street lights with popsicle shades
over them.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I mean, it was just all about.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
The popsicle, honoring the popsicle for all it had done
for them to allow them to, you know, advance economically
and culturally. And you saw all these gorgeous houses, some
of them big, some of them not so big, all
of them painted different colors, so much so that I
remember I stood up on a hill at one point
and it hit me that looking down on the village,
(12:34):
it looked like a whole bunch of multi colored popsicles,
all crammed together in a refrigerated case. You know, it
was an amazing thing.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
This week we're celebrating Sinco DeMaio easily the biggest Mexican
holiday in America, even though no one knows what it's
really about. Sinko Demayo is not Mexican Independence Day. That's
September sixteenth, and it wasn't invented by Don Julio to
sell more tequila, although sometimes it feels that way. Sinco
de Mayo commemorates a historic military victory. On May fifth,
(13:05):
eighteen sixty two, rag tag Mexican army defeated the elite
French forces of Emperor Napoleon the Third at the Battle
of Puebla.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yes, the French tried to invade Mexico, but that's a
whole different story.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
When Mexicans living in California and Nevada heard about the
underdog victory, they threw spontaneous parades and fiestas and parties
that became an annual celebration every May fifth. Maybe it's
a stretch, but we think the story of Tacombo and
the Paletta qualifies as another underdog victory. Thanks to some
hard working, risk taking folks from this tiny town and
(13:41):
michu A Kan, the Paletta has conquered Mexico and is
steadily taking over the world. There are thousands of Paleta
shops now in the United States. Jennifer and Ricardo say
there are at least a dozen in Anaheim alone. One
palleta chain just opened a store in Dubai. So if
you're looking for something a little different this Cinco de Mayo,
(14:02):
put down your nachos and.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Corona light for a second.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Open up your favorite map sap type in balletas or
damcha wakana or even do coombo. Chances are an underdog
entrepreneur has opened up Paleta shop or two or three
right in your town.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And for the record, you can't go wrong with mangochile.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
It's the perfect balance of sweet and spicy valise.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Sinco de Mayo.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Very special episodes is made by some very special people,
like I mentioned up top. Today's mini episode is written
by Dave Russ. Dave's last VSSE was Night of one
Thousand Weddings back in March, and we'll have more day
this summer. This show is hosted by Zaren Burnett, Danish Schwartz,
and Jason English. Our producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and
(14:53):
sound design by Jonathan Washington. Additional editing by Mary Doo.
Original music by Elise McCoy. Show logo by Lucy Kintonia.
Our executive producer is Jason English.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
To email the show, you.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Can reach us at Very Special Episodes at gmail dot com.
We'll see you back here next week for the night
the Globetrotters lost. Very Special Episodes is a production of
iHeart Podcasts.
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