eat me
November 30, 2007
It’s almost La Navidad and you know that means tamales! If you want to celebrate with tamales but aren’t up to making them yourself (it’s best with a crew of at least 3 people in my experience), read on for some Los Angeles recommendations…
Last month, Juan and I set out on the GRAND TAMALES TOUR OF 2007 featuring 5 shops located in Boyle Heights, East LA, and Echo Park.
Stop Numero Uno:
This is clearly a tamal factory, producing large amounts of tamales per day. They have a big restaurant as well as a take out counter. The restaurant was packed on Sunday at noon, but unfortunately, that didn’t translate into great tamales. We tried a red chile pork and green chile pork. Juan says that their biggest assets are that they are “big and popular”. They were also dry and dense.
Stop Numero Dos:
Los Cinco Puntos
Well known for their carnitas and hand made tortillas, Cinco Puntos is also on someone’s list of favorite tamales but I can’t remember whose list, and I don’t agree with him anyways. You can see the ladies mixing the masa and making the tortillas that are cooking on the griddle behind the counter.
The red chile pork tamal was just so so, but the fresh tortilla was so deliciously warm and corny.
Stop Numero Tres:
La Indiana Tamales
Ok, here we are at the holy grail of tamales. I had high hopes when we drove up to this little shop that specializes in tamales, and they did not disappoint. We could see a large mixer in the back churning away at the masa while we ordered a red chile beef and a queso con rajas.
This may look like a typical tamal, but believe me, it was the softest masa with a meaty core of delicious beef in red chile sauce. I almost died. The queso with rajas was just as good.
Apparently, I must have realized that we had already found the perfect tamales since I didn’t take pictures of the two remaining tamales shops: La Mascota and Tamales Albertos. I don’t have much to say about La Mascota except their tamales were some of the worst and you can watch the ladies making them through a window. Tamales Albertos was promising as they have a large menu of tamales, some of them Oaxaca style, but the couple red chile pork we had were sub-par compared those of La Indiana. I’ll go back to try the fancier ones, especially since it’s in the hood. Here’s Juan with his booty.
Happy Eating!
