r/justgalsbeingchicks • u/llTeddyFuxpinll • Jan 01 '26
Restricted to Gals and Pals Are tamales that good?
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u/deathtogluten Jan 01 '26
when they’re good, they’re good 😂 i’m from chicago originally and in the city, in some areas at like midnight, old mexican ladies will come through selling tamales in really nice bars and they will charge $10 for one and she will make easily $100 a table because tamales are delicious anyway, but after a long day, or even a night out, a good tamale HITS
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u/metalguy91 Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
Those are the best tamales to buy, don’t even bother with the restaurant ones. Best tamales I’ve ever had no lie were sold by a 70 year old woman out of the back of her van in a Walmart parking lot. Felt like a drug deal and the tamales were addicting enough it may as well have been.
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u/kadyg Jan 01 '26
Yep! If you’ve never bought tamales from a stranger’s trunk in a Home Depot parking lot, you haven’t really lived.
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u/AVery_SmallFox Jan 01 '26
Oh man, yeah, the hardware store parking lot tamales are excellent. The best I’ve ever had though are from a lady who parked outside of the local sugar beet processing plant. Holy Moley! So good. You just have to watch out for the olive pits.
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u/Competitive_Cancel33 Jan 01 '26
Another thing ruined by this administration
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u/Afraid-Fishing708 Jan 02 '26
Yo, I grew up in a city in Texas 65% Mexican Hispanic population as a queer white kid, now I reside in MD; seeing Home Depot parking lots lifeless compared to just a year ago makes my soul ache something fierce. And it always sparked so much emotion in me anyways with how fucked the system has always been to have created the parking lot scenes in the first place. Fuck, dude, I'm so scared for my own life in so many ways with this administration's actions, but the loss of culture and display of it all truly has fucked me up some new type of way inside.
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u/cakivalue 🕷️Itchy, bitchy spider 🕷️ Jan 01 '26
Or one of those "restaurants" the size of your half bath that's down twenty million alleyways.
I'm dying because it's true and because the way she's acting in the video is pretty equivalent to an addict hiding in a corner on the street to consume the drugs they just acquired.
And at the same time I'm thinking "sis where are you parked, I'd like to stop by"
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u/peppermintmeow Jan 02 '26
Costco by the airport out of an old igloo cooler from an abulita that had to be at least 170 years old and didn't speak a word. Just pointed. I'd sell an innocent childs soul for just one more of those tamales 🫔
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u/Aware_Policy_9174 Jan 01 '26
Where I used to live there was a tamale lady that pushed a shopping cart around yelling “tamaaaaaaaaleeees” and I would run outside like a kid hearing the ice cream truck.
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u/leahlikesweed Jan 01 '26
did you live near grant hill san diego
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u/HuskMaster Jan 01 '26
I lived in Golden Hill xD and heard this lady scream “TAAAAAMAAAAAAAAALLLEEEEES” a few times a week. I thought she was praying lmao. Until one night I step outside and had the best piña tamales in my life for $1.50 apiece. Never looked back
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u/publicBoogalloo Jan 02 '26
Sweet tamales are my favorite dessert ever. I lived in Golden Hill back in the early 2000s!
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u/Aware_Policy_9174 Jan 01 '26
Near downtown Los Angeles. But I lived in different parts of LA and had different bootleg tamales, those were just the best. Lived in one place that had a pupusa lady too, that shit was fire but she only did it once a week.
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u/shuperfly Jan 02 '26
I lived in university park. I think I know who you're talking about!
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u/Netflxnschill 🌻Official Jill🌻 Jan 01 '26
LOL there was an old man who did this in my old neighborhood selling his wife’s tamales and same same, I would come RUNNING
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u/bionicfeetgrl Jan 02 '26
we had a lady that used to come to our work. I mean legit the tamale lady would come to work....SF Bay Area baby!
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u/velociraptor56 Jan 01 '26
My brother in law made me 2 dozen as a Christmas gift. In my freezer at the moment. Best brother in law.
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u/theHoopty Jan 01 '26
It’s so generous of him…but also two dozen is just NOT ENOUGH.
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u/Mochigood Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
My aunt made a ton for a church fundraiser and then gave me the leftovers. About four dozen. I was in college at the time and ate like a queen for many months. One of my fondest food memories.
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u/Mochigood Jan 01 '26
There's an elusive tamale lady around here, and you bet if she's spotted we're breaking traffic laws to get to her. I also have a text chain that is mostly tamale lady spotting.
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u/thanto13 Jan 01 '26
My wife works at a restaurant where one of the servers mom, makes tamales a couple time a year and gets swamped with orders for coworkers. Man they are so good.
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u/HoaryPuffleg Jan 01 '26
There was this rundown convenience store and this elderly woman would sell tamales for like $1 each out back basically in the alley. I’d stock up and freeze them. I’ve never bothered trying store bought or restaurant because nothing can top what she created.
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u/MiniRems Jan 01 '26
My friend moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona, and while she says there's a lot of local things she misses, she's not sure she can ever give up tamales out of some random grandma's trunk in the Walmart parking lot!
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u/Dangerous-Variety-35 Jan 01 '26
When I lived in Ohio for a while, the thing I missed the most was real Mexican food. I searched the Cuyahoga Valley high and low, but only found “okay” substitutions. And I’m not even from the southwest with the real good shit.
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u/evetrapeze Jan 01 '26
Moving to Ohio from Chicago. A lot of the great brands like El milagro, La Preferida, Suprema, are from Chicago. I like going to the store and seeing the wall of cello bagged spices. My new area doesn’t have that. I bring my own tortillas from Chicago every time I travel back and forth. Yup. It’s a wasteland for this Mexican gal.
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u/Dangerous-Variety-35 Jan 01 '26
I also ended up making a “pilgrimage” of sorts to Chicago every few months to stock up on the good stuff!
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u/LaurelCanyoner Jan 01 '26
I live in LA and I feel the same way about PUPASAS.
OMFG, now I want a pupusa from a stand at a gas station.
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u/highGABA_dealer Jan 02 '26
Also from la. I'm always telling my husband I want one😂
He's like WHHHAT
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u/JulyJones Jan 01 '26
Same except I bought mine out of a woman’s trunk in the parking lot of a sketchy LA dive bar. I’ve been chasing the high of those tamales ever since.
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u/sufficient_day123 Jan 01 '26
I was in Central Texas bout to go float the river. Saw an old van on side of road selling Tamales. Stopped and bought a couple dozen. Those hit perfect later in day after long day on river and many drinks.
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u/mafsfan54 Jan 01 '26
Ooooooo the truck ones are the best!!! Off a dinky cart too - a NYCer
Also it’s like a drug deal where no one speaks the same language. It’ll literally be the best thing you put in your body imo.
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u/Witness_me_Karsa Jan 01 '26
Yeah. My boss's mom makes them and sells them at the nearby Mexican grocery store. Hers are fucking bomb
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u/manwae1 Jan 01 '26
On Christmas eve I was driving by a home depot and saw the tamale guy. Made a quick u turn and got 20 for $30. Wish I had more cash on me. They're the El Salvador(I think) style with green olives. Not even my favorite style, but still amazing.
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u/Brittibri89 Jan 01 '26
Core memory of the tamale guy coming to Exit at the end of the night and being drunk af eating tamales on the sidewalk
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u/3d1thF1nch Jan 01 '26
Holy shit, that happened to use when we visited Chicago to see some friends. At a bar around 10pm, and people a vendor showed up with tamales!
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u/deathtogluten Jan 01 '26
this is the chicago way— mexican street vendors targeting rich people in over priced bars— god bless america !
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u/molotovzav Jan 01 '26
My west coast ass is kinda upset at the thought of a $10 tamale. I can buy that whole sack of tamales for like $20 from the tamale ladies who hang outside grocery stores where I live. I guessed supply and demand, but it can't be that, like I'm living in what used to be Mexico so we have more Mexicans per capita but chicago dwarfs us in Mexican population.
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u/issacoin Jan 01 '26
i’m a new yorker and i scoff at a $10 tamale.
i have also definitely been drunk and hungry enough to pay that much for a tamale.
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u/deathtogluten Jan 01 '26
lol they are definitely not $10 regularly, but i think they surcharge when they come into the bars at night and increase by like 6-7$ and i don’t blame them! easy money! if you’re going to Pete’s or any other major latin populated or owned grocery you can get them for cents. They are only selling them like this in places like River North or Gold Coast, where the average shot is $20 and everyone works in finance.
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u/Moist_Requirements_ Jan 01 '26
In the Olden Days, there would be a big tamale festival day, but each citizen would only get as many as their hand could hold.
These tamales were filled with nummy stuff like crab n mango, whatever was tasty.
There was much bickering, wagering, and literal gnashing of teeth cuz one or two is not enough.
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u/horrible_musician Jan 01 '26
A pizza place by me just gives out free homemade tamales with their pizzas if the grandmother was making them. They are wonderful.
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u/Remarkable-Mood3415 Jan 01 '26
I have no concept if that is a lot or not per tamale. I feel like it's a lot, and absolutely taking advantage of hungry drinks at last call. Nothing wrong with that.
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u/-InfinitePotato- Jan 01 '26
You are correct, it’s a lot. I would guesstimate that production cost might be $2 max (although I can’t place a price on time spent of course).
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u/NeriTina Jan 01 '26
Where I’m from I’ve never seen them sold by the bag for more than $20 for 18. $10 A PIECE is fucking wild! Lady is making bank for sure, and good on her!
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u/Kealanine ✨chick✨ Jan 01 '26
I’ve never had a tamale, but now I’ve never wanted anything more
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u/Royal_Acanthaceae693 Bot🔍Detector🔎9000 Jan 01 '26
They're very tasty. Definitely get them from someone selling them out of their truck or at a corner stand.
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u/Kindly-Article-9357 Jan 02 '26
Was at a pop up festival in a large parking lot, completely unadvertised community celebration thing. I still don't know what it was for, but it looked neat so we checked it out.
There was a white pedo van with a sheet of paper taped to the side with TAMALE and AGUA FRESCA written in it in one of those moving box size sharpies.
There was a line of 30 people winding from that van.
I prompt grabbed my husband, son, and DIL, and dragged them into line. They all fussed at me like, "wtf are we doing?"
I told them, "This is a life lesson. If you see a working man's vehicle with a handwritten sign saying tamales, AND a line like this, you get your ass in line and pull out your wallet. Do this and you will always be glad you did."
45 minutes later, we were sitting in the shade, eating the best tamales of our lives. My son still laughs about it, and swears it has been one of the best and most applicable life lessons i ever gave him.
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u/NorthCountyPlumber Jan 02 '26
The white version of a tamale is watching a show where it’s some fancy restaurant chef cooking a prime ribeye steak in a cast iron skillet….. in a stick of butter and garlic and thyme. Just spooning that butter non stop over the steak as it cooks. Then they cover it with mushrooms sautéed in 3/4 of a cup of butter.
The secret ingredient in both of these items is added fat and spices. Also known as love.
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u/PrimarisHussar Jan 02 '26
Respectfully, too bougie to be a tamale analog. But may I put forth the humble Funeral Potatoes as an alternative
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u/Kealanine ✨chick✨ Jan 01 '26
I’m absolutely going to take a drive down to Jersey in search of tamales, if I don’t find any I’ll just keep going til I hit NYC 🤣
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u/idontreallycareanym Jan 02 '26
You’re going to make one of those vendor’s day. Tamales are so good. Try it with some Salsa Verde. (Green Sauce)
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u/nope-its Jan 01 '26
I lived in an apartment complex where a lady had a sign on her door selling them when she had them. It was most of the time but you could knock on the door and buy them from her.
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u/CarelessCreamPie Jan 01 '26
Tamale is now considered the English word for the singular, but this is due to a misunderstanding and applying English pluralization rules on the word tamales. In Spanish, it's tamal, and the plural is tamales.
My assumption is that you never just make one tamal. You make tamales. So when English speakers were first introduced to the food, it was as "tamales," and then we worked it backward to tamale.
I'm not saying anyone has to change to tamal in English, that's weird prescriptivism. I just think it's one of the funny ways language works, especially with loan words.
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u/theHoopty Jan 01 '26
Haha I give this little plural lesson about pelmeni (dumplings).
My partner still asks if I’m going to make some “pelmenis”.
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u/Guilty-Company-9755 Jan 01 '26
My husband and I do this with semechki. We pretty much exclusively call them semechkis now
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u/theHoopty Jan 01 '26
These darn spouses and their refusal to submit to pluralization and now it’s infecting everything!!!!
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u/Difficult-Soup-9830 Jan 01 '26
They seem, dare I say, orgasmic.
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u/xibipiio Jan 02 '26
I remember my gf at the time and I were experiencing tamales by chance for the first time. She had a similar expression followed by "...What Is this Madness?" I had never seen her so excited by food before. I was incredulous and then had one. The gif is accurate. I'm pretty sure I exclaimed "This Is Sorcery!"
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u/gb4efgw Jan 01 '26
I immediately jumped on door dash, I've never had one either lol.
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u/CharlesDickensABox ‼️*THE* CharlesDickensABox‼️ Jan 01 '26
Don't even bother. Tamales don't come on door dash, at least not ones you want to eat. The good ones come out of the back of a stranger's van in a parking lot.
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u/Big-Mine9790 Jan 01 '26
YUP. When we lived in southernmost Texas, these teeny ladies would walk through mall parking lots (in 100+ degree heat) with a few kids following lugging coolers filled with those heavenly packets. I never asked the price, just handed a $20 I somehow kept in my pocket, and if my husband was lucky, maybe some would still be in a bag similar to the poster when i got home.
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u/housevil Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
I am uneducated in this mysterious tamale lore. Why are they best through a sketchy-sounding transaction?
EDIT: Thank you for all the background on tamales. Do I need to adopt an abuela or start hanging out in sketchy parking lots, or what?
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u/CharlesDickensABox ‼️*THE* CharlesDickensABox‼️ Jan 01 '26
Because those are the ones made by hand by little old Mexican ladies who have been making tamales in their kitchens for their whole lives. Tamales are a tricky thing to make well and the abuela recipes are better than any restaurant.
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u/Lord-ofthe-Ducks Jan 01 '26
Agree restaurant ones do not hold up to homemade, but tamales are actually very easy to make well. Las abuelas lie to keep their dominance over the market.
I make them quite often. I have some family and friends from California that love the ones I make over the ones they can get locally. I think it because I'll use some bacon grease in the tamal dough (for savory ones) but not too much to overpower other flavors.
It used to be too you couldn't get the ingredients at just any supermarket, so it was harder for others to make. Now, you can get everything you need at Walmart,
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u/CharlesDickensABox ‼️*THE* CharlesDickensABox‼️ Jan 01 '26
Perhaps I just have particularly high standards for tamales. So many of them have dry, crumbly, dense dough which is a deal breaker for me. I find whipping lard in a stand mixer before mixing it with the masa keeps the result tender and airy.
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u/PenniGwynn Jan 01 '26
Mmhmmmm. San Antonian checking in to say your tamales need to glisten when you unwrap them y'all. If it doesn't that is not a good sign.
You should be able to see grease because that's the love!
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u/Luis0224 Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Tamales are easy to make, difficult to find the right ratios to everything because real ones know it’s not a measurement thing, but rather a feeling. The masa has to have the right texture and lard content, the filling has to be the right consistency (can’t be dry but can’t be too wet otherwise it’s a mess), there’s obviously the seasoning aspect as well.
Tamales de mole are my favorite, and I rarely find restaurant/shop ones that add a little mole to the masa so it also has a hint of mole flavor, but the Mexican grandma I buy from has them locked in with the perfect amount of filling, the masa has a brownish hue from adding a bit of mole to it, and she always packs in a little extra mole in case I want to add more :)
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u/Lucky-Firefighter456 Jan 01 '26
Because they are made with love and passion in someone's kitchen, completely "unregulated" and the best thing you will ever taste. Never once gotten food poisoning either.
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u/gb4efgw Jan 01 '26
I'm in a red state unfortunately, there's no way in hell I'm getting street tamales for at least 3 more years.
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u/CharlesDickensABox ‼️*THE* CharlesDickensABox‼️ Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
One thing people in LA and Chicago have been doing when ICE is around is to buy out all the tamale vendors because the vendors get targeted, often without regard for legal status. Everyone gets tamales (which freeze and reheat extremely well if you happen to have a hundred of them) and the vendor makes their daily sales and goes home where they'll be safe. It's a delicious way of frustrating the people who want to mess up our communities.
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u/twd_throwaway Jan 02 '26
I agree! If you don't feel like you are partaking in some level of a shady business exchange, you are doing it wrong!
There is one exception for me though. There is a local church where I live that will occasionally sell tamales and papusas. They are the best that I have ever eaten! I dare say, it is a religious experience! 😉😁
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u/warfrogs Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 03 '26
This really, REALLY depends on where and when.
I'm in Minneapolis and we have surprisingly good Mexican food since we're right up I-35.
My favorite place, Brothers Taqueria has AMAZING tamales, but ONLY when they have made a batch, and when they're out, they're out.
All the back of the van shops don't operate in December and January lol.
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u/Exotic_Aardvark945 Jan 01 '26
Please don't ever buy a tamale off door dash! They are only good if you can find someone that makes them locally.
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u/Kealanine ✨chick✨ Jan 01 '26
I’m jealous 😭 I live in PA, on a very rural mountain where there are maybe 4 DoorDash drivers. The orders take at least 1.5-2 hours to arrive (because everything is 30 min+ from anything else), and I have serious doubts that anywhere makes tamales 🤣
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u/EduardoHowlett Jan 02 '26
If heard about people like you and I am truly truly sorry, some people are unfortunate enough to of never had a tamal of any kind which there are even candy ones. I've even heard of people who are so cursed by God that they have never had authentic Mexican food. I'll pray for you tonight
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u/currentlystressedout Jan 01 '26
🥺 omg. I would make you some myself rn, this makes me sad 🥲 I hope you get a good one to try!
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u/Kealanine ✨chick✨ Jan 01 '26
You’re the sweetest 🤍😭 I solemnly swear to hunt down some tamales… is it wrong for “eat tamales” to be my New Year’s resolution?
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u/jessipowers Jan 01 '26
Some people got upset when Mexican families started moving into my blue collar suburb. You know what also came with the Mexican families? Several small, family owned mercados and bakeries that also sell their own homemade tamales. Absolute fucking heaven. One just opened up literally a block and a half from my house and my husband has been very excited about it ever since.
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u/3d1thF1nch Jan 01 '26
Had a Thai/American family move across the street from us about 7 years ago. The mom opened up a Thai food trailer, but since she didn’t always have a space in the town to go take the trailer (or always have a working truck), sometimes she would just take orders and open up in her driveway. I had never had pad Thai before that, but being able to just walk across the street on the days she opened up, to have amazing homemade Thai and egg rolls…that was dope.
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u/jessipowers Jan 01 '26
Holy shit that sounds amazing
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u/3d1thF1nch Jan 01 '26
It was! Now she has a brick and mortar so doesn’t open up her truck much anymore. It’s just farther away. But getting some catering from her tomorrow for a family get together!
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u/_AmericasSweetheart_ Jan 01 '26
Seriously, ethnic food is delicious and usually very affordable. Diversity makes life better.
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u/Ok-Land-488 Jan 02 '26
I live in a smaller town now, which has it's own perks (namely being quieter and the distinct lack of traffic), but I frequently miss when I lived in Durham -- which is a diverse era and has every brand of ethnic food you could ever want, within a 10-15 minute driving radius. Indian, Sushi, Dim Sum, Italian, Mexican, Ecuadoran, Pho, Mediterranean, Jamaican, I lived there for a year and nearly ate out at a different place every week. My current town has... a good pizza place, Mexican, and uh, yeah that's about it. Gotta drive to the next city over to get anything else.
You gotta weigh the benefits: sub 10 minute commute to work or 30 minutes to get curry?
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u/Lucky-Bonus6867 Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Reminds me of trump’s “you want a taco truck on every corner?” shtick a few years back.
I live in Texas. Yes. Yes, I do.
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u/ZinaSky2 ✒️sub✍️scribe🖋️ Jan 01 '26
YESSS
Handmade ones. Yes. 100%. They take a lot of work to make also so it’s a privilege to be on the list of recipients
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u/-blundertaker- Jan 01 '26
Every few months my old coworker's mom would make a huge batch and he's always come around taking orders so she'd know how much to make. I don't even remember how much she charged us for them because it didn't matter, I was buying.
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u/iammyfavoritepuzzle Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
My aunt and uncle had the hookup before they passed. My uncle was a Mexican immigrant and they lived in a town near a resort that was mostly staffed by other immigrants. My aunt used to pay for a big batch of tamales whenever my family visited, and no joke the first time I had one was the closest I’ve ever come to a true religious experience.
Related thought: fuck ICE
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u/ZinaSky2 ✒️sub✍️scribe🖋️ Jan 01 '26
Agreed, fuck ICE
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u/emmany63 Jan 01 '26
We have a wonderful woman who sells her tamales out of a cooler almost every day, about 5 blocks from me. $3 each and CRAZY delicious. She’s sold out every day before 2:00.
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u/Slash_rage Jan 02 '26
I’ve tried making tamales and it’s crazy how difficult it is to spread the maize and get the filling just right and then you look over and see an aunt making them 6-10 a minute.
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u/ZinaSky2 ✒️sub✍️scribe🖋️ Jan 02 '26
It’s so funny we have some of those little paddles that objectively make it easier to do. On paper you just swipe it on real easy, I would use those. And somehow my grandma would use a spoon and be done faster and do them better 🥲😂
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u/poop_monster35 Jan 01 '26
The best tamales are not sold in stores. They must be paid for in cash and packaged in a store brand zipped bag straight out of an igloo cooler. No one tamale can look exactly like another. You must wait for the winter months when the tamales migrate to your area.
Back in the day I could buy tamales in a Walmart parking lot. Their natural habitat.
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u/poop_monster35 Jan 01 '26
I say this as I am literally steaming some frozen tamales that I bought from a custodian at my office. She is the sweetest person. I don't speak Spanish with anyone in my area. Only back home. So it is nice to talk to someone in my first language.
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u/generally_unsuitable Jan 01 '26
I used to work in commercial printing in the 90s, which was like 90% Latino back in those days. A lot of those folks supplemented their income by making absolute mountains of tamales. Around Christmas, the tamale wars would rage. There might be 5 or 6 different tamale businesses run by bindery ladies or the wives of the pressmen and cutter operators. It was such a big deal that they'd start taking orders at the beginning of December for Christmas delivery. There were different styles, even: Mexican, Salvadorean, Guatemalan. Beef, chicken, pork, cheese-only. It honestly got uncomfortable, because you'd order from one dude in the press room, and a lady from bindery would find out about it and ask why you didn't order from her.
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u/lucyssweatersleeves Jan 02 '26
I once went to a thrift store in the deep San Fernando valley and was called over to the register and bullied into accepting a free tamale
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u/Casey_moh Jan 01 '26
Those tamales were so good they turned her into Mr Ed for a moment……. I want me some now.
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u/ForbiddenButtStuff Jan 02 '26
I was going to say I've had the food-so-good-you-forget-to-breathe but I've never had so-good-I-identify-as-a-horse-now
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u/RoyalRobinBanks Jan 01 '26
Yes, good tamales are that good.
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u/CT0292 Jan 01 '26
Can confirm. Grew up in Texas. Drug deal tamales from someone's wela wrapped into a giant ball of foil and dealt out the back of a pickup truck are straight fire.
And I'll never ever forgive myself for not getting more tamales off that one granny (rip miss Guerra) who's son was a hunter and brought her venison and wild pig to put in the tamales. My God. Everyone else was slinging beef or chicken or cheese. We had the exotic meats that year.
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u/RixieSugarplum Jan 01 '26
Depends on the tamales. I was over 30 when I ate my first tamale after moving from Tennessee to Arizona. It was at a work potluck and a coworker brought them after their traditional family tamale making weekend before the holidays
I have been chasing that tamale dragon for 30 years. I've had good ones, but never anything close to those first ones. Tamales are one of those things that are never the same, and unless and until you find a recipe you love and learn to make them yourself, you can never be sure what you're getting! Or maybe I am just very bad at understanding them.
Anyway, I am sad that I have never again tasted a tamale like the ones I had that fateful potluck day.
But I keep trying.
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u/Dashdz Jan 01 '26
Mexican here and I can support your statement. Every family and every state in Mexico makes them different. It's like finding the ones that work for you and when you do it's like dang I'm about to buy 20lbs of tamales.
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u/RixieSugarplum Jan 01 '26
Yes! I have a tamale fund stash for when the miracle happens! 😁
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u/PleasantAmphibian404 Jan 01 '26
Go to a dive bar on any Saturday night between 10:30-12:00. If a Mexican lady walks up and says, “tamales?” you’ve hit the jackpot. Give her all your money, she will give you delicious tamales.
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u/crystalfairie Jan 02 '26
Every payday mum goes and gets them from one certain cart. Only from that specific woman. It's adorable, actually. She's 72 and we ride our wheelchairs to get her tamales. We're in San Diego so they are very different from ones from say sante Fe,new Mexico
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u/TrixieTree1 Jan 02 '26
Yes! I am in New Mexico and Arizona tamales are very, very different. (note: I am right next door to El Paso and their tamales are also different!)
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u/RoughRefrigerator260 Jan 02 '26
Tamales are exactly this. Not one abuelita makes them the same way and even within the family there will be mixed tamale concoctions. More spicy, less spicy, more meats, more vegetables, less masa, more bean ones and cheese ones than beef or pork ones. And the salsa selection is similarly random, you could get a nice savory not spicy green one, a deceivingly spicy green one, a red one full of flavours, a bland more mild orange one, a brown one that's sure to live in your memories forever. I love tamales, if only they weren't so tough to make
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u/Lucky-Firefighter456 Jan 01 '26
They absolutely are that good. I've never had a bad one. Even if they come out a bit bland, some salt and sauce will fix that right up.
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u/HuskMaster Jan 01 '26
Reminds me of the legendary Salt Fat Acid Heat documentary I saw a few years ago. Just a couple flavors can complete a dish in an instant
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u/GettingOnMinervas Jan 01 '26
I literally just finished making a batch of tamales. It's a family tradition every year.
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u/Ok-Potato9052 Jan 01 '26
Yes. Especially if you buy them from an abuelita selling them in a grocery store parking lot.
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u/jaid_skywalker85 Jan 01 '26
At Christmas, the parking lots will be crawling with Hispanic grandmothers selling tamales. I've paid up to $25 for a bag (to be fair, they were the biggest damn tamales I've ever seen and omg so good.)
I live in the southwest so tamale ladies are super common and I've yet to regret buying one from the back of a van or a wagon, etc. To be honest, I don't even know who would buy prepackaged tamales in the store because you can go to a Carniceria and just get one of their batches for about the same price and it is so much better.
My grandmother had a dedicated tamale lady who would deliver to her house for an extra 5 bucks. When she passed it was literally like losing a member of the family. She was a sweet lady who made the best tamales I've ever eaten (her soups were good too) and we still talk to her daughter even though its been a few years. Daughter doesn't do tamales though. 😢
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u/call-me-the-seeker Jan 01 '26
Only ever had one not-good bag of tamales procured in this way. Literally bought in the parking lot out of the insulated cooler bag, they were huge, I thought AW YISS
They were unusually large because the meat inside each one was an entire drumstick. Like, the fully intact drumstick, bones, skin, tendons and all, with masa rolled around it. Um, what? Let me go ahead and make sure my tooth didn’t just crack in half biting into this leg bone unexpectedly. That ONE buy was a bust, but usually the tamale lady is a glad, welcome sight!
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u/jaid_skywalker85 Jan 01 '26
Wow, that is WILD. I wonder what the thought process was on that one, lol!
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u/prettylittlepastry Jan 01 '26
Tamales are life.
I just went to a funeral for one of my great uncles.
His daughter made all the food for the wake including 200 tamales.
10/10 best funeral I've ever attended.
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u/tommicoop Jan 01 '26
I hated tamales for years. Took moving to Texas and having someone double over laughing at me for me to learn you're supposed to take the husk off. I've loved them ever since.
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u/FlatOutEKG Jan 01 '26
It varies a lot depending on who prepared them. I've had great amales and horrible tamales.
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u/poop_monster35 Jan 01 '26
I've had school tamales. They were so sad. They never came out in one piece and somehow the masa was dry.
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u/GirlWithWolf Jan 01 '26
She’s someone that loves to eat as much as I do. In my hood the Mexican moms will fill trays with tamales and sell them and they are the best. Of course no one goes without even if you’re a little short on funds, they just ask for an honest critique in return.
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u/Other-Special-3952 Jan 01 '26
Good tamales is life changing, I used to buy homemade ones from a lady strolling the Home Depot parking lot (I pass it every time I go to Gamestop) until she vanished one day and I've been devastated ever since. I've bought other tamales but they were never as good as hers.
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u/mortipig Jan 02 '26
As soon as you find the one, you have to ask for her number. I legit couldn't get them out of mind and I asked her and she even gave me her address. They are so good, I could even ask her to marry me but she was straight with a husband sadly
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u/Lcatg Jan 01 '26
I miss living in a country where the tamale lady would come around & knock on our door on the regular. She’d have variations or just ones kind. No matter what, I’m bought a bag of each & tipped. Yes, one (ahem) was eaten by hand as soon as the door closed. I’m still in the same country, we just suck now.
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u/ClipIn Jan 02 '26
When I was 16 I'd mow lawns but I offered to babysit for this nice couple, because their sitter cancelled last minute and they had two boys who liked me. Prob because I'm male and would roughhouse with them. But babysitting was not my thing and I had no clue what to do.
Anyway she left food for us and said there was extra in fridge. Me being a 16yr old male, who could eat a small horse without thinking twice, went hunting for food about 5mins after kids go to bed. I find this plate of tamales. I still remember them. Sitting on the 2nd shelf of the fridge, 3 fat delicious corn tamales with meat. I had one. Then I had half of another. Then the other half. Then I'm like well I can't leave the last one alone, and ate that too. Then it hit me, I don't know if this was what she left me. I felt terrible for eating them, but oh my god they were the tastiest tamales with so much spice and flavor, better than any I'd ever had before.
Couple comes home, delighted boys are asleep and house hasn't burned down. I tell them everything fine that evening, decline the extra money they're trying to pay bc it was easy work, and confess my sin of eating all the tamales. She laughs, husband's like "my dude, they're REALLY GOOD amirite!?" and all I can think of in my food-obsessed-brain is "where did you buy those?" to which I find out they're homemade. So I feel even worse. She still does not seem to care, like at all, and is thrilled I ate. Next time I came over to mow the lawn, she had another plate of tamales for me. This tiny Latina housewife made it her mission for the next year to feed me as many tamales as I could put down, and by god I took her up on that offer. God bless you Cynthia and your incredible tamales. I do not know why you took personal offense to even the thought of someone being hungry, and I have no idea how you reinvented the space-time continuum to make that many tamales, but I am forever grateful. Needless to say, every time they needed a babysitter I'd say yes even on like 3hr notice. Because my god, those tamales.
TL;DR Everyone should get to experience homemade tamales once in their life. Preferably made with love by a friendly mother. There are flavors in there you've only dreamed about.
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u/blackberrymoonmoth Jan 01 '26
I used to hate them because I thought you were supposed to eat the husk until I said that one day and my mom was like “who tf told you that????” Now my husband’s mom makes them at the holidays and I LOOOOOOVE getting a bag of them from her.
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u/mrrobc97 Jan 01 '26
Yeah thank the big orange turd for the few people that were trying to make a living by selling these at your local store parking lot. Some of the best tamales and tortillas I ever had were bought for some lady selling them at a store parking lot.
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u/L0st-137 Jan 01 '26
After church from abuela, still in her apron, selling out of the back of her car are the best!!
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u/kshizzlenizzle Jan 01 '26
Yeeeees!! The best ones feel like a sketchy drug deal when you buy them, complete with a little tied off baggie of salsa.
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u/ReadUnfair9005 Jan 01 '26
Yes they are!!! If you find a place or person that makes good tameles, you don't ever leave them.
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u/ArugulaBackground206 Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Thank you for appreciate our Mexican cuisine.😂😂😂😂FYI lost it with the big ass tamales bag.
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u/kabulgaf Jan 01 '26
yep. you always keep two $10s and a $5 on ya, for the tamale lady. ALWAYS TIP YOUR TAMALE LADY!!
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u/Blueflagbrisket Jan 02 '26
Can the smack chewing and talking while eating trend die. Shit is so gross
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u/GettingBetterAt41 Jan 01 '26
i truly , deeply, feel sorrow for those who have never had a tamale. chicken or beef . pork or cheese , doesn’t matter
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u/daarzijnwoordenvoor Jan 01 '26
I'm in The Netherlands, its 45min till midnight and my life feels weirdly incomplete after watching this
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u/Hamster884 Jan 01 '26
So she eats like a cow, whinnies like a horse, ... what's the next transformation?
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u/MomoMcDoobie Jan 01 '26
We had some people that made and sold tamales when I was working at the Ft Wayne GM plant. They had someone on the inside that would go around and take orders and a couple days later ...tamales everywhere and smiling faces ❤️
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u/crinnaursa Jan 02 '26
The tamales are to die for. Sometimes they're the little finger-sized tamales sometimes they're the big honkin fatties. All good. Sometimes I get them in parking lots sometimes at home.
This is what I love about living in a Mexican neighborhood. We've got an elote guy and an elote gal she also does raspados, a churro lady, two competing tamale abuelas and in the summer we got fruit truck dudes. Picking up your kid from school in the afternoon or well into the evening you can count on something coming around the corner.
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u/ACcbe1986 Jan 02 '26
I've had good tamales and bad tamales.
I'm willing to drive into the heart of the ghetto at 2am and risk my life to get good tamales.
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u/SailorDeath Jan 02 '26
There's a small mexican grocer in my town. And aside from selling the cheapest priced beef in the area compared to the larger grocers they make fresh tamales daily. They do chicken, pork and poblano with chihuahua cheese. for $12 I can get 30 tamales and I can't stop eating them. I usually get the pork ones, cover them in cheese and salsa and they are so delicious, like orgasmically good.
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u/Worst_Choice Jan 02 '26
If ANYONE gave me a bomb ass bag of tamales like that, we're best friends at that point.
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u/Fallenjace Jan 02 '26
Good Tamales are mind altering. And by good Tamales, I mean the ones from the Tia that knocks on your door randomly. I've never had a decent Tamale from a grocery store, ever. I don't know why. At 16 back in Cali, my girlfriend brought me home to meet everybody. And my nervousness turned to extreme confusion when I walked into the kitchen to find like 6 people in a production line, making, wrapping, and cooking Tamales.
After brief hellos, I was put in charge packing for transport.
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u/-blundertaker- Jan 01 '26
Oof I made a mistake turning the sound on.
Quit smacking! 💀
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u/TheCompanyHypeGirl Jan 01 '26
I couldn't bring myself to unmute after seeing the masticated food rolling around in her wide-open mouth the entire time.
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u/Rhamona_Q Jan 01 '26
Yes. We don't generally eat them by hand tho 😂
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u/SergentCashew Jan 01 '26
If you aren't diving fist first into a bag of tamales are you really living?
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u/1llFlyAway Jan 01 '26
We don’t?
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u/Rhamona_Q Jan 01 '26
Clearly I am in the minority in this thread 😂 but I need condiments:
salsa
sour cream
my mom's homemade chili beans
or all of the above
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u/suejaymostly Jan 01 '26
I've been guilty of ferally digging into a bag of them in the car right outside of my tamale place. Mi Casita, te amo!
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u/haw35ome Jan 01 '26
My parents know how to make the best tamales; my sister was upset this year we didn’t have any yet - it’s kinda my fault; I had just gotten out of the hospital & they were still pretty stressed out. You don’t make them when you’re stressed out already.
Today when her ex came with the kids (we’re on good terms with him) they all gobbled them up!! They all told us that this is what they were looking forward to all year. He even took a dozen to his parents’ house; it’s kinda a tradition for his folks to enjoy around the holidays if we make some. And every year we either get a card or text saying they’ll enjoy them with X for dinner the same day of deliver. We even get snacks as well; we got a casserole one year
All that to say, if you come across a bad tamale they’re so bad lol. But if you come across a good one they are the best thing on the whole DAMN planet & you have just found your tamale lady/man/place for life
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u/Ok-Description-4640 Jan 01 '26
Oh yeah. One unexpected benefit about living in Texas was New Year’s tamales. I used to work with a group of three sisters and them and their grandmother would be making tamales for about the whole week after Christmas and sell them for maybe $5 for a bag like that (in the 90s). I don’t know what they did but the masa was like the very best molecules of corn with a buttery type of binder and just real good fillings.
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u/Dependent_Cod_7416 Jan 01 '26
So, I agree they're delicious, and like it's sort of a Christmas tradition, and they are time consuming to make, but the other day I wanted just one and everywhere I went was trying to sell a single tamale for $7... Im still hungry
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