Tamale season has ended at Carmen’s Mexican Food. Snif – very sad about that. So back to my usual order of Carmen’s crispy shell chicken or carnitas taco combo.

Also delish, but I need my tamale fix too, so I started looking for tamales in the frozen food section of my favorite grocery. I first tried Amy’s Black Bean Tamale Verde (I like black beans):

www.amys.com/our-foods/black-bean-tamale-verde

Not bad, but no corn husks, and didn’t have the characteristic tamale taste. Didn’t really want the rice, either.

Then I tried CedarLane Chile & Cheese Tamales:

www.cedarlanefoods.com/products/chile-cheese-tamale/

These are good. There are two layers of corn husks, and they absolutely taste like tamales. And no damned rice either.

The top of the ingredients list:
* Corn
* Roasted Poblano Peppers
* Corn Flour Masa
* Water
* Ground Tomatoes
<snip>

Cheese was even further down, so they should’ve called ‘em Chile Tamales. I don’t care – they’re damned good.

Next, I tried these Tucson Tamale Green Chile & Cheese Tamales.

http://tucsontamale.com/products/green-corn

Similar to the CedarLane, but not quite as good, despite being a buck more expensive at my grocery. Both are 10 oz net weight.

No other tamale offerings, so the excellent CedarLane is my tamale fix until next tamale season at Carmen’s. Hoping that they’re available year round. I currently have four boxes of ‘em in my freezer.

Haven't had a tamale in years. We have a large hispanic population around here, and lots of Mexican eaterys. But nobody seems to do tamales, at least not in neighborhoods we would feel comfortable going to at night. Saw some a couple weeks ago at Costco, but we had the fridge stuffed already, so didn't buy any. Anyone tried them?

quote:

Originally posted by Watergoat:
Haven't had a tamale in years. We have a large hispanic population around here, and lots of Mexican eaterys. But nobody seems to do tamales, at least not in neighborhoods we would feel comfortable going to at night. Saw some a couple weeks ago at Costco, but we had the fridge stuffed already, so didn't buy any. Anyone tried them?

I tried the Costco tamales the other day and was very surprised how good they were, give them a try.

My daughter married a Filipino, now she makes lumpia.

My son married a half Japanese/ half Mexican girl, he now makes sushi, sashimi, and tamales (breakfast, dinner, and dessert. )

Now if I can just get a Vietnamese into the family for some pho.

COSTCO Definitely.

I too love tamales and normally have some at least once a year. Covid claimed this tradition for me this year as we did not go to my MIL's this year due to wu flu.

Great, now I want tamales.

quote:

Originally posted by Watergoat: Saw some a couple weeks ago at Costco, but we had the fridge stuffed already, so didn't buy any. Anyone tried them?

They're passable and can satisfy a craving, the ones found here are a bit heavy on the masa but, that's to be expected with mass produced ones.

I've eaten tamales at various places around San Diego and found that Kaelins in El Cajon are pretty good as are the ones from Garcias; both on East Main St. about a block from each other. While many claim that the ones made at Las Cuatro Milpas in the barrio are the best, I found the balance of masa to filling was weighted too much on the masa side. They have a limited menu but have good beans and fresh tortillas (flour and corn) as well as tacos.

Kaelins is a Mexican grocery store and has a deli section where you can get several hot foods including fresh carnitas if that will scratch an itch.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
My daughter married a Filipino, now she makes lumpia.

My son married a half Japanese/ half Mexican girl, he now makes sushi, sashimi, and tamales (breakfast, dinner, and dessert. )

Now if I can just get a Vietnamese into the family for some pho.

That's funny it made me smile.

For tamales, my wife's uncle used to make some every year but he's too old now. I'm staying at my sister in laws and a Mexican neighbor brought some tamales over for Christmas. Man, was it the best tamales I've ever had. Not too salty, moist meat and dough. mmmm....

For pho, we had a friend who regularly made pho and invited us. The meal was strange at first in that they give you every other food first and then serve the pho for last. It took them at least 4 hours to cook the pho. And, boy, that was delicious too. Sadly, he died a couple of years back.