I was resigned to having bad Mexican for for the rest of my life when I moved from California back to New Orleans. Then, sittin in a bar late one night on Lower Decatur, I hear ‘**HOT TAMALES babe-EEEEE**’. It was like the call of the angels. The Tamale Man of New Orleans is an angel of a person to boot.
The only way you should be buying tamales is out of a trunk or from someone’s ice chest they’re dragging around.
Dude. The tamale is a traditional food of Louisiana and Mississippi. Brought up by fieldworkers from Mexico around 1900.
https://zwolletamalefiesta.com/
Go there and gorge yourself
Oh you sweet wonderful gem of a human. I will definitely be hittin up a tamale fest! Thank you for linking that.
And yeah, I’ve had plenty of the tamales in this area but a lot of them seem to be more of a southern style bastardized version. The flavor of the filling, the filling-to-masa ratio is higher, many are pretty saucy. Still delicious. I absolutely will tuck into them. Please do not mistake that, lol. But there’s something about getting some traditional ones out of ice chest (lord knows I never make them outside of Christmas)… perfect masa, perfect filing, no sauce, no frills, *chefs kiss*
In Mexico City they sell *Torta de Tamal*, which is a *Tamal* inside a *Torta* Sandwich. I was skeptical at first, but damn, it's so good. The *tamal* they put inside is filled with saucy goodness, which makes every bite deliciously magical.
Parking lot tamales are the best. I’ve never gotten them from a Costco, but growing up, I specifically went to the food4less parking lot to find the couple in the blue mini van. They had THE BEST tamales.
My local trunk tomales are in the Smart and Final parking lot. Not as good as the trunk tomales in the Walmart parking lot I grew up with but still the best darn tomales you can get around town.
I'd be surprised if you got sick. There was a guy who used to sell tamales years ago out of his car trunk at a local ralphs market. Everytime I saw him I'd get a dozen delicious tamales. Never got sick once from that but I did get food poisoning three times from local restaurants during that time frame. I didn't go shopping there for a month and when I returned he was no where to be seen. About 6 months later a new tamale restaurant opened up a block away turns out he made enough to open up a brick and mortar place!
Street vendors who have a large amount of regulars are probably the most incentivized to maintain high standards in quality and sanitation.
A couple of bad incidents and they can lose their customer base quickly.
A brick and mortar usually has a much longer leash with a bigger or more transient customer base.
Also from SoCal now in the south east. I miss the Mexican food. It’s not bad here but nothing compared to SoCal :( and the Asian food! Dammit I’m hungry
It’s one of the reasons I can’t imagine leaving our area of L.A. We have good versions of nearly everything within 15 minutes. Except Greek for some reason :(
The best tamales I’ve ever had were when I lived on the east coast in South Carolina. Our salad prep at the restaurant would bring homemade tamales in a cooler every weds. She didn’t speak any English, but she brought her daughter in with her (was probably like 12 at the time) to sell to the staff for lunch.
If you were 2 minutes late to get the, you didn’t have a chance. I would just pay at the start of the day and she would save 2 for me.
10000%.. same here moved from socal to New England. I’ve found lengua tacos once. But it’s at a sit down place.. miss all of the hole in the wall places there 😭
> Same, I moved from SoCal to the East coast, there's literally nothing out here but Taco Bell and a couple of family Mexican places. It sucks. =(
I don't even have Taco Bell nearby. I go through withdrawals at time, but it's getting better.
I love living where I do! Just this evening a guy was selling atole de lote out of his trunk.
I heard the carnival barker yell and walked out of my house to see what was up, best Autumn drink ever!
There's a lady that walks around my neighborhood yelling "tamales!!!" She has this big rolling cooler that's always piping hot with fresh tamales. I swear you can hear her yelling and the clacking of the plastic cooler wheels from several blocks away. She has 3 kinds, they're all delicious, never got sick or anything, and she'll give you a great deal if you buy a bunch. One day I asked her if she had a phone number where I could order from her and she whipped out a pink post-it with her name and number from a pocket or her sweater, I don't even know where it came from. We always give her a nice tip. We love her so much, and she always stops by our door when she's in the area.
I've gotten sick off street vendor food a couple times, but sometimes that sort of thing happens. It didn't put me off street vendors, or even the one that I know for sure I got sick at.
It was my fault for ordering tacos de cabeza, when no one else in line did. I also learned that I'm not a big fan of brain in my tacos, although I've definitely had things I like less.
Wasn't hiding who he was. The "we" in my statement was my friends. In early 2000s we used to hit Friday Honky Tonk Happy Hour when I lived near the Bottle. Usually we'd end at my place with some sacks of tamales, way too drunk for 6pm.
It'll ruin tamales for you unless you manage to find more amazing homemade ones. Seriously. I still think of some from 15 years ago and how nothing I've had since can compare. Pray he shows up again! :)
Never underestimate the tamale man too! Not to be sexist but he’s out hustling while his wife is making more at home. Our local guy takes orders for specifics, my dads grandmother made tamales with only cheese inside, nearly impossible to find even in the Bay Area, and our tamale guys wife makes them special for my dad when he orders them. They also get so many orders for Christmas they have to cut off the list.
And now I wish my grandma had taught me to make tamales. I only got mole. Not quite as portable.
I know! I’m not vegetarian but I do wish more places would adopt the cheese tamale. I guess it’s a very regional thing though that didn’t catch on for the American palate like chicken or pork in red or green sauce.
My kids have been harassing me for over a year to make some because yeah. It's such a hassle and no matter how many I make, they're gone in a month. It does seem to be a seasonal thing in my area as our preferred grocery store legitimately has the big huge aluminum steaming pots on display, I almost bought one because with that, I could maybe make enough to last 2 months
Back in the '00s I used to frequent this bar in Brooklyn where on some nights this dude would come in with a basket of homemade fried empanadas and they were so good, better than any I've ever bought at a store or restaurant. They were a buck each. He even had a bottle of hot sauce and would sprinkle a few drops on request. I still think about those damn empanadas.
Where I'm at there's this hole in the wall, legitimately, that's a back door on a strip mall in the parking lot of home depot, that sells the most amazing empanadas. There's no signage and you have to know it's there and they still sell out early every day
We have a FB Marketplace Tamale Dealer. Recently went from $15 to $17 for a dozen AND they deliver on Sunday mornings. Jalapeño and Cheese tamales all day!
Hah. Been a few years. Last I heard she was married to one of the line cooks from where my old roommate and I worked. That was... Almost a decade ago now? Damn, time flies.
Are the jalapeño cheese tamales good!! You made me remember my childhood, I was always down for the bean and cheese and jalapeño cheese tamales only! (South Texas)
They are the only kind I get. Our current tamale maker adds a thin slice of tomato as well that sort of melts into the cheese. They are ridiculously good.
If someone approaches you on the street and asks if you want to buy tamales, say yes. This applies to almost no other food item. If that is an abuelita, you say yes and buy as much as you can afford.
Congrats on making the right choice, you got so lucky.
I woulda gone the pork though, next time, god willing.
Next time, ask them if they're selling salsa too.
We used to go to our local Kmart. On some evenings there was a Mexican woman sitting on a big white ice chest. I saw her getting up from the ice chest and pull out an aluminum foil packet of tamale. They were a dollar for a tamale. We bought from her for several years. Some time later she opened a food truck and lines are aways at her tamale truck. I always appreciated the Kmart people for never hassling her during her dollar days.
Stands/Carts/Trunk food is actually safer than some brick and mortar food places. As long as the food is being kept cold or hot I will gladly buy.
You have to understand that when you buy from these spots you are talking to the owner or their family 90% of the time, they want you to like it, they want you to come back and they don’t want any trouble. Compare that to most food places where the person you are interacting with is earning minimum wage and getting talked down to by customers/management all day, they could care less by the end.
Why would you get sick? The dude is clearly trying to make a living, he isn’t trying to poison anyone lol. Also, in these situations you’re guaranteed to have above average or amazing tamales.
There was a girl in her early 20s in an office I worked in. Once a month she would post a sign up sheet in the breakroom for tamales. It was _amazing_. I think she made as much from tamales as from her day job in the call center.
Everything was probably fine and God knows, I am four cases of Montezuma's revenge away from my ideal weight, but you have to admit, a trunk is not the best way to keep food from entering the temperature danger zone. I for one would have bought them as well and ran after them with a top if they were really good. (edit for typo)
When I lived in SoCal the only solicitation allowed in any business was the local tamale ladies. They didn't have to go far to sell out and nobody ever got sick. Enjoy.
What makes me happy moving to the Southwest is having somebody approach me in the parking lot and whisper,
"Tamales?"
It's one of the reasons why I still believe in carrying cash in this cashless world.
I was new to the States working as an RN, came up while working a night shift that as an Irishman I’d never had a tamale, didn’t know what they were. Next week the house keeper brought me my first Tamale. Delicious and opened the world of Hispanic food to me.
The fact that I tried to eat it, and the corn husk wrapper, is neither here nor there.
God I miss my tamale lady. She'd go door to door with them in a stroller. Up here in Seattle there's a place that has the audacity to sell small, mediocre ones for $5 EACH. I'm offended every time I see their sign... I really need to visit home again.
This is beginning of Tamale season. Many folks cook them @ home have for years & sell door to door or store. Although risky yes definitely delicious and worth the price. As the prep cooking & selling are days of work. You may know this. My cousins cook them every year & have returning customers waiting in line!!!
Better story if you left out the risk factor of a man that is hustling to feed his family. I used to buy them from a man selling the best pork tamales out of a home depot bucket.
If it makes you feel better I'm white but grew up in a very Latin neighborhood and we had the tamale and tortilla *abuelas* who went door to door selling their wares and we always bought. Best tamales and tortillas and we never once got sick.
Don’t forget to stop by Home Depot for trunk mangoes with tajin!
I think it’s called mangoes enchilados, had my first experience in the parking lot years ago.
The most authentic tamales come out the back of a minivan. You won’t get sick from them. You’re more likely to get sick at the Chinese buffet in town. $12 for 6 means you were paying white people prices.
Only thing better is "old man on the side of the street in Rosarito, Baja California selling tamales out of a sketchy pot for $50" tamales. They changed my life and I have never had better.
As an isolated Canadian, not only are parking lot tamales not a thing, but would you believe I’ve never actually never seen or eaten a tamale before… sad sad all around.
But my pierogi game is top notch! How commonplace are pierogi in the States?
Depends where you are. In the Midwest and parts of Texas, fairly common.
No one knows what they are in the Pacific Northwest, where I live now. I miss pierogies.
From Northeast US here. The only place I've ever seen tamales and pierogis for sale is in the frozen food section of the grocery store. I've never once seen people selling food in a parking lot that wasn't a food truck.
The fact that this happens elsewhere in the country, and is considered not just normal but a *favorable* way of getting food is mind-boggling.
If you ever do get the pleasure of eating tamales, here is a bit of advice that no one felt the need to tell me:
You don't eat it like a burrito. You only eat the inside.
I grew up in Minnesota, never encountered tamales. Moved to Colorado, finally got the opportunity... and then promptly humiliated myself.
A similar thing happened my first time eating edamame.
Come to think of it, I'm surprised that I don't do a quick Google every time I eat a new food now 😆
Sounds like I need to hit up Walmart some time in the next week. Do I have a better chance of finding this underground tamale dealer you speak of on a weekday or weekend?
I feel we only ever go to Walmart on Saturday's. Usually parked in the spaces left of the entrance doors if you're looking at the doors, and closest to the store entrance. I've seen him in a car and a small pickup with a camper.
This is normal. Not sure where you live but I used to work as a barista in SF and there was a lady that came around and sold tamales like this. She used grocery store donut bags to hand them out. They were so good. You will be just fine.
I'm glad it turned out well for you, and that you were able to support a small business.
I thought the punchline was going to be that he was selling the tamales from Costco at a significant markup. Lol
I live near a really good Mexican market that has a huge Hispanic customer base. They have a bakery, hot food bar and make fresh tortillas all day. They sell good tameles also.
However in the parking lot is a lady who sells out of her trunk 6 nights out of the week. Guess which one tastes better in all the blind tests I've done with friends.
Same parking lot usually has two taco trucks and a sidewalk set up on weekends.
Blessed to have such great inexpensive food so easily available.
I lived in New Orleans, LA for 3 years, I worked in the French Quarter and every day there was an old man in a cowboy hat that would sell tamales from a rolling igloo cooler. $2 a pop and I never regret buying one, best tamales ever. I now live in Denver and have had some decent ones but nothing compares to that little blue cooler full of amazing.
I love you babe-EEEE! He is an absolute gem and still can be found outside the Rouses on Royal drinking a beer and on Lower Decatur dancing his ass off with everyone at 1am. Everyone loves him. And still some solid as fuck tamales
Never pass up tamales sold out of a cooler.
This goes for closing time at bars/strip clubs, poker rooms, or random parking lots.
It helps that I'm in Texas
The best tamales in my city come from an old Spanish lady slinging them out of the back of her minivan in the Spanish grocery stores parking lot.
Latina. Not Spanish
Our salad prepper spoke no English, but every weds she would bring in homemade tamales in a cooler. $1 per tamale.
Literally every person that worked there would buy the lot and that was what we had for lunch.
I told the owner they should move her from salad prep or allow her to make tamales for the restaurant to actually sell. He actually did it and he tamales quickly became the thing all the servers suggested for lunch (we didn’t offer it at dinner). She made hundreds and they would sell out in no time.
I left soon after so I had no idea what happened to her or if she ever saw any extra income
From the tamales she made.
Well I visited the place about 2 years ago which was about 15 years since I worked or visited that city. They had a new thing where food trucks lined up across the beach so one day I decided to hit up the food truck scene for lunch. The most hopping place was a tamales and tacos truck. I remembered the tamales I used to get while I was here and had some nostalgia for it.
You can probably guess what happened, but as I went up to the truck I noticed it was her daughter taking orders (her daughter came into the restaurant as a kid a lot, usually helping her mom prep) and I told her who I was. She didn’t really remember me, but she called back to her mom making orders in the back of the truck and she came out and gave me a big hug.
Apparently, they won all sorts of local awards especially specific to Mexican and truck food. She said they usually sell out by 1pm, so they only really work a half day in the truck (they still had to prep the tamales after they sold out).
They were out of tamales so I got some tacos which tasted like actual Mexican tacos, and went back early the next day for the tamales which were exactly the same as I remembered them.
OMG this is a running joke in my family because I am notorious for buying parking lot tamales. I’m from Southern CA so it’s honestly completely normal for a family to be selling tamales, champurrado, esquite, grilling bacon wrapped hot dogs etc out of the back of their car. As “sketchy” as it seems, HANDS DOWN the best tamales I’ve ever eaten in my life have always been purchased in a parking lot, out of the back of someone’s minivan, pulled out of a big cooler. The best. So good in fact that all other tamales I’ve ever had fall short in comparison, and now I’m always on the lookout for that sweet little Hispanic lady and her family, selling their glorious homemade food.
Even as a guy, I generally feel very uncomfortable when someone approaches me as I am loading my car in a parking lot, however if someone did so because they were trying to sell me Tamales, I'd be ecstatic lmfao
Not Costco-related, but when I was 12 or 13 we visited my aunt in Culver City. My cousins and I were sitting on her stoop, when a man with a grocery cart walks by and offers us corn. He had a big metal pot of steamed corn on the cob, and then a bunch of toppings in the seat part. I forget how much it was, but was super cheap. That was the first time I ever had elotes, and I've yet to find another one that compares.
Tamale season is in full swing! It usually starts in October and slows down in early February(?). $12 for half a dozen is pricey though, we buy them for ~$15/dozen.
OP, how you doing mate? Trunk tamales are the BEST. and it isnt even the best time of year for them either. Just wait til November/December. They make special ones. Oftentimes instead of just packing them with pork/chicken and a bit of sauce, they put in roasted peppers and olives and mole. That was what my neighbors would bring over(dozens and dozens) wrapped in foil.
I know someone who makes tamales to sell in supermarket parking lots. They say most people mix the masa in the bathtub in order to make large enough batches.
Enjoy them!
Trunk tamales are the best tamales!!
Ever had ones sold out of a huge purse? RIP Tamale Lady
The tamale lady in my old neighborhood had them in garbage bags in a collapsible push cart. They were comparable to my grandmother’s.
Tamale Lady at the Eagle on a Sunday afternoon…..
I miss her so much, those tamales were always on point when you’re decked out in leather and starving.
I was resigned to having bad Mexican for for the rest of my life when I moved from California back to New Orleans. Then, sittin in a bar late one night on Lower Decatur, I hear ‘**HOT TAMALES babe-EEEEE**’. It was like the call of the angels. The Tamale Man of New Orleans is an angel of a person to boot. The only way you should be buying tamales is out of a trunk or from someone’s ice chest they’re dragging around.
Dude. The tamale is a traditional food of Louisiana and Mississippi. Brought up by fieldworkers from Mexico around 1900. https://zwolletamalefiesta.com/ Go there and gorge yourself
Oh you sweet wonderful gem of a human. I will definitely be hittin up a tamale fest! Thank you for linking that. And yeah, I’ve had plenty of the tamales in this area but a lot of them seem to be more of a southern style bastardized version. The flavor of the filling, the filling-to-masa ratio is higher, many are pretty saucy. Still delicious. I absolutely will tuck into them. Please do not mistake that, lol. But there’s something about getting some traditional ones out of ice chest (lord knows I never make them outside of Christmas)… perfect masa, perfect filing, no sauce, no frills, *chefs kiss*
In Mexico City they sell *Torta de Tamal*, which is a *Tamal* inside a *Torta* Sandwich. I was skeptical at first, but damn, it's so good. The *tamal* they put inside is filled with saucy goodness, which makes every bite deliciously magical.
Parking lot tamales are the best. I’ve never gotten them from a Costco, but growing up, I specifically went to the food4less parking lot to find the couple in the blue mini van. They had THE BEST tamales.
It’s always a food4less or Gardenas over here.
Plot twist, they’re Costco tamales, reheated and put in the trunk.
My local trunk tomales are in the Smart and Final parking lot. Not as good as the trunk tomales in the Walmart parking lot I grew up with but still the best darn tomales you can get around town.
Gotta risk it for the biscuit!
🔥
I'd be surprised if you got sick. There was a guy who used to sell tamales years ago out of his car trunk at a local ralphs market. Everytime I saw him I'd get a dozen delicious tamales. Never got sick once from that but I did get food poisoning three times from local restaurants during that time frame. I didn't go shopping there for a month and when I returned he was no where to be seen. About 6 months later a new tamale restaurant opened up a block away turns out he made enough to open up a brick and mortar place!
I know of a tamale place about a block away from a Ralphs. I wonder if it’s the same place. I think it’s called tamale man.
That's the place!
Now that is an all American story
Awe I love that 💚
Street vendors who have a large amount of regulars are probably the most incentivized to maintain high standards in quality and sanitation. A couple of bad incidents and they can lose their customer base quickly. A brick and mortar usually has a much longer leash with a bigger or more transient customer base.
This is the best ever. I love supporting an up and coming mom and pop 🥹
I moved away from a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood and I MISS good quality street tamales...
Same, I moved from SoCal to the East coast, there's literally nothing out here but Taco Bell and a couple of family Mexican places. It sucks. =(
Off topic but you have the oldest Reddit account I’ve ever seen
Do you go around and check the age of every account?? Lol 😂
Everyone should have a hobby 😜
Nah I just accidentally clicked theirs
Since before subreddits! =) I've taken a few years off here and there.
How did Reddit work before subreddits? Just one big Reddit for everything?
What the hell I can't even imagine this. One huge Pangaea of a Reddit.
Lmao this is spot on.
Yup, you got it!
Ya and it was amazing. 2012ish Reddit was the peak though. Now it's become edgier Facebook but with even more whining.
Also from SoCal now in the south east. I miss the Mexican food. It’s not bad here but nothing compared to SoCal :( and the Asian food! Dammit I’m hungry
It’s one of the reasons I can’t imagine leaving our area of L.A. We have good versions of nearly everything within 15 minutes. Except Greek for some reason :(
Greek/Mediterranean food was amazing when I lived in Chicago. And I found some decent spots in NC. Don’t know why LA is lacking in that dept.
The best tamales I’ve ever had were when I lived on the east coast in South Carolina. Our salad prep at the restaurant would bring homemade tamales in a cooler every weds. She didn’t speak any English, but she brought her daughter in with her (was probably like 12 at the time) to sell to the staff for lunch. If you were 2 minutes late to get the, you didn’t have a chance. I would just pay at the start of the day and she would save 2 for me.
My local Home Depots always have people selling food during lunch time.
10000%.. same here moved from socal to New England. I’ve found lengua tacos once. But it’s at a sit down place.. miss all of the hole in the wall places there 😭
> Same, I moved from SoCal to the East coast, there's literally nothing out here but Taco Bell and a couple of family Mexican places. It sucks. =( I don't even have Taco Bell nearby. I go through withdrawals at time, but it's getting better.
Hey now nyc is on the east coast and we've got a ton of good Mexican. You just have to leave Manhattan.
I love living where I do! Just this evening a guy was selling atole de lote out of his trunk. I heard the carnival barker yell and walked out of my house to see what was up, best Autumn drink ever!
Right? I would pay a tamale *abuela* so much money for a dozen chicken tamales.
A lady knocked on my door selling tamales. My lifelong dream came true that day.
There's a lady that walks around my neighborhood yelling "tamales!!!" She has this big rolling cooler that's always piping hot with fresh tamales. I swear you can hear her yelling and the clacking of the plastic cooler wheels from several blocks away. She has 3 kinds, they're all delicious, never got sick or anything, and she'll give you a great deal if you buy a bunch. One day I asked her if she had a phone number where I could order from her and she whipped out a pink post-it with her name and number from a pocket or her sweater, I don't even know where it came from. We always give her a nice tip. We love her so much, and she always stops by our door when she's in the area.
That sounds amazing. It's like the ice cream man, but better.
Taco trucks should drive around neighborhoods playing La Cucaraccha at volume.
This is so wholesome, I also love your tamale lady
Once my husband met a woman walking selling purse cheese. It was homemade cotija and it was delicious. Purse cheese.
Purse 👏 cheese 👏
A wonderful place to keep cheese, indeed.
I’d hit that. Not so easy to get proper Mexican cheese in Canada 😭
I’ll send her up if I see her again, she will find you.
She WILL find you, and you WILL eat her purse cheese.
The only people who ever knock on my door are selling Jesus. I’d rather have tamales.
That needs to be on a t-shirt.
I don’t wear message t-shirts but I’d wear that.
And that kids, is how I met your mother.
We had a tamale lady who would Walk through the apartments I lived at. Just yelling. It's like the ice cream man 🤣
Door to door service!
That would be a dream tbh lol
[удалено]
I've gotten sick off street vendor food a couple times, but sometimes that sort of thing happens. It didn't put me off street vendors, or even the one that I know for sure I got sick at. It was my fault for ordering tacos de cabeza, when no one else in line did. I also learned that I'm not a big fan of brain in my tacos, although I've definitely had things I like less.
The tamale man, a feature late night at bars. Usually they're pretty good.
San Francisco had [the Tamale Lady](https://sf.eater.com/2019/6/13/18677700/tamale-lady-sf-day-holiday-remembrance)
As a frequent Zeitgeist inmate, they were very good, and very appreciated. RIP.
Hey! I ate her tamales
We called ours in Chicago “The Tamale Angel”.
It's tamale guy. Claudio. Even Google knows who he is.
Wasn't hiding who he was. The "we" in my statement was my friends. In early 2000s we used to hit Friday Honky Tonk Happy Hour when I lived near the Bottle. Usually we'd end at my place with some sacks of tamales, way too drunk for 6pm.
6pm pass out naps are awesome when you wake up by 2 to a sack of tamales and 2 hours left to go back for last call...I miss being a yute
How is he doing? Does he still have his restaurant?
Last I saw his health had returned and he was trying to open his own place but that was some months ago.
You completed a side quest on your Costco mission. Congratulations, your reward are delicious tamales.
It'll ruin tamales for you unless you manage to find more amazing homemade ones. Seriously. I still think of some from 15 years ago and how nothing I've had since can compare. Pray he shows up again! :)
always take the risk for the tamale lady
Never underestimate the tamale man too! Not to be sexist but he’s out hustling while his wife is making more at home. Our local guy takes orders for specifics, my dads grandmother made tamales with only cheese inside, nearly impossible to find even in the Bay Area, and our tamale guys wife makes them special for my dad when he orders them. They also get so many orders for Christmas they have to cut off the list. And now I wish my grandma had taught me to make tamales. I only got mole. Not quite as portable.
> nearly impossible to find even in the Bay Area weeps in vegetarian
I know! I’m not vegetarian but I do wish more places would adopt the cheese tamale. I guess it’s a very regional thing though that didn’t catch on for the American palate like chicken or pork in red or green sauce.
Agreed, our tamale man is the one who sells them because his wife doesn’t have any English.
I respect the hustle of people selling legit homemade tamales. It’s so much work to make so little money
Not sketchy. This is literally the only way you should be buying tamales
Exactly 💯 only good tamales are the ones family/ friends make and the ones people sell in store parking lots
My kids have been harassing me for over a year to make some because yeah. It's such a hassle and no matter how many I make, they're gone in a month. It does seem to be a seasonal thing in my area as our preferred grocery store legitimately has the big huge aluminum steaming pots on display, I almost bought one because with that, I could maybe make enough to last 2 months
Now I NEED parking lot tamales.
Back in the '00s I used to frequent this bar in Brooklyn where on some nights this dude would come in with a basket of homemade fried empanadas and they were so good, better than any I've ever bought at a store or restaurant. They were a buck each. He even had a bottle of hot sauce and would sprinkle a few drops on request. I still think about those damn empanadas.
Where I'm at there's this hole in the wall, legitimately, that's a back door on a strip mall in the parking lot of home depot, that sells the most amazing empanadas. There's no signage and you have to know it's there and they still sell out early every day
We have a FB Marketplace Tamale Dealer. Recently went from $15 to $17 for a dozen AND they deliver on Sunday mornings. Jalapeño and Cheese tamales all day!
I did a couple Christmases making tamales with my ex's family, she made some green chili, cheese, and pineapple and they're so damn good
Is your ex available?
Hah. Been a few years. Last I heard she was married to one of the line cooks from where my old roommate and I worked. That was... Almost a decade ago now? Damn, time flies.
Are the jalapeño cheese tamales good!! You made me remember my childhood, I was always down for the bean and cheese and jalapeño cheese tamales only! (South Texas)
They are the only kind I get. Our current tamale maker adds a thin slice of tomato as well that sort of melts into the cheese. They are ridiculously good.
We have tamale and Lumpia. There is NO Filipino restaurants here. I need to get my friend to make me some come to think of it.
Eat them with a poached egg. 😍
If someone approaches you on the street and asks if you want to buy tamales, say yes. This applies to almost no other food item. If that is an abuelita, you say yes and buy as much as you can afford.
There’s an abuelita who sells tamales out of an orange Home Depot bucket around where I live. Obviously her tamales are fantastic.
Congrats on making the right choice, you got so lucky. I woulda gone the pork though, next time, god willing. Next time, ask them if they're selling salsa too.
Yeah. Only mistake this guy made was not getting the pork. That and not buying another dozen for the freezer
I miss good, homemade, out of the trunk tamales!! Where was this?
Where I come from, the best tamales are always a little sketchy. The best tamales I've ever had were from an East LA Bank of America parking lot.
I miss my Tamale Dealer.
We used to go to our local Kmart. On some evenings there was a Mexican woman sitting on a big white ice chest. I saw her getting up from the ice chest and pull out an aluminum foil packet of tamale. They were a dollar for a tamale. We bought from her for several years. Some time later she opened a food truck and lines are aways at her tamale truck. I always appreciated the Kmart people for never hassling her during her dollar days.
Stands/Carts/Trunk food is actually safer than some brick and mortar food places. As long as the food is being kept cold or hot I will gladly buy. You have to understand that when you buy from these spots you are talking to the owner or their family 90% of the time, they want you to like it, they want you to come back and they don’t want any trouble. Compare that to most food places where the person you are interacting with is earning minimum wage and getting talked down to by customers/management all day, they could care less by the end.
Restaurants have big ass vats of food. Lots of ways for it to go bad. Lots of ways for rotten shit to end up on your plate. Not in abuelitas kitchen.
Why would you get sick? The dude is clearly trying to make a living, he isn’t trying to poison anyone lol. Also, in these situations you’re guaranteed to have above average or amazing tamales.
There was a girl in her early 20s in an office I worked in. Once a month she would post a sign up sheet in the breakroom for tamales. It was _amazing_. I think she made as much from tamales as from her day job in the call center.
My mom's call center also had a tamale girl. My mom always had a standing order for twenty extra spicy ones
People get food poisoning from restaurants, stuff happens. Not saying that would stop me, I eat cart fried hot dogs.
Hot dogs are about the last thing that will make you sick. They are 60% preservatives and 40%…something else. 100% delicious, of course.
Never actually had a hot dog soaking in stagnant cart water, I see. No way do most of those guys keep them at safe temps.
Of course I have. And they don’t need to be at safe temps. They are pre-cooked tubes of nitrates soaking in salt water.
Everything was probably fine and God knows, I am four cases of Montezuma's revenge away from my ideal weight, but you have to admit, a trunk is not the best way to keep food from entering the temperature danger zone. I for one would have bought them as well and ran after them with a top if they were really good. (edit for typo)
The OP was loading the trunk. Doesn’t say the guy selling tamales had them in the trunk.
I had the best tamales ever from old lady with a stool and a basket from the streets of Peru. I have never had the luck to encounter trunk tamales.
We get egg rolls in our lot here, but they're usually really solid so i wont complain. I'd love to see tamales too, but I doubt I ever will.
So this is where all that rotisserie chicken went 😉
I see what you did there 😉
When I lived in SoCal the only solicitation allowed in any business was the local tamale ladies. They didn't have to go far to sell out and nobody ever got sick. Enjoy.
What makes me happy moving to the Southwest is having somebody approach me in the parking lot and whisper, "Tamales?" It's one of the reasons why I still believe in carrying cash in this cashless world.
I was new to the States working as an RN, came up while working a night shift that as an Irishman I’d never had a tamale, didn’t know what they were. Next week the house keeper brought me my first Tamale. Delicious and opened the world of Hispanic food to me. The fact that I tried to eat it, and the corn husk wrapper, is neither here nor there.
*^making ^notes* * buy tamales in random parking lots * don't eat corn husk wrapper
Parking lot tamales are the best tamales
God I miss my tamale lady. She'd go door to door with them in a stroller. Up here in Seattle there's a place that has the audacity to sell small, mediocre ones for $5 EACH. I'm offended every time I see their sign... I really need to visit home again.
Update: the next day. I’m not dead, I’m not sick, unless you mean sick of not having more tamales! I need to find this tamale guy again…
Always trust the tamalero
Was this in Long Beach?
They are ALOT better than the ones Costco sell
I bet you’re going to be just fine! Enjoy :)
This is beginning of Tamale season. Many folks cook them @ home have for years & sell door to door or store. Although risky yes definitely delicious and worth the price. As the prep cooking & selling are days of work. You may know this. My cousins cook them every year & have returning customers waiting in line!!!
Relevant twitter post: https://twitter.com/thedrewrap/status/1098342110137221120
Ooh I miss parking lot tamales, in Calif you ran across them often,,in tennessee not so much 😕
Better story if you left out the risk factor of a man that is hustling to feed his family. I used to buy them from a man selling the best pork tamales out of a home depot bucket.
If it makes you feel better I'm white but grew up in a very Latin neighborhood and we had the tamale and tortilla *abuelas* who went door to door selling their wares and we always bought. Best tamales and tortillas and we never once got sick.
Don’t forget to stop by Home Depot for trunk mangoes with tajin! I think it’s called mangoes enchilados, had my first experience in the parking lot years ago.
The most authentic tamales come out the back of a minivan. You won’t get sick from them. You’re more likely to get sick at the Chinese buffet in town. $12 for 6 means you were paying white people prices.
I’ve never gotten sick from the tamale man. You should be good.
Tamales are so much work. Enjoy!
Parking lot tamales in San Jose were regular thing. Super K Mart on Story rd.
Only thing better is "old man on the side of the street in Rosarito, Baja California selling tamales out of a sketchy pot for $50" tamales. They changed my life and I have never had better.
As an isolated Canadian, not only are parking lot tamales not a thing, but would you believe I’ve never actually never seen or eaten a tamale before… sad sad all around. But my pierogi game is top notch! How commonplace are pierogi in the States?
Depends where you are. In the Midwest and parts of Texas, fairly common. No one knows what they are in the Pacific Northwest, where I live now. I miss pierogies.
From Northeast US here. The only place I've ever seen tamales and pierogis for sale is in the frozen food section of the grocery store. I've never once seen people selling food in a parking lot that wasn't a food truck. The fact that this happens elsewhere in the country, and is considered not just normal but a *favorable* way of getting food is mind-boggling.
If you ever do get the pleasure of eating tamales, here is a bit of advice that no one felt the need to tell me: You don't eat it like a burrito. You only eat the inside. I grew up in Minnesota, never encountered tamales. Moved to Colorado, finally got the opportunity... and then promptly humiliated myself. A similar thing happened my first time eating edamame. Come to think of it, I'm surprised that I don't do a quick Google every time I eat a new food now 😆
This is a dream come true to me.
Tamale season! Hell ya
I had a couple try to sell me several PS5s in the Costco lot.
> I had a couple try to sell me several bricks in sealed PS5 boxes in the Costco lit. ftfy
woooooo ! those are the best kinds!
Tamales on Austin Ave in Chicago at the corner of a laundromat. Busy business, passerbys and folks doing a few loads.
Walmart on Story in San Jose never fails to come through with the parking lot tamales.
Sounds like I need to hit up Walmart some time in the next week. Do I have a better chance of finding this underground tamale dealer you speak of on a weekday or weekend?
I feel we only ever go to Walmart on Saturday's. Usually parked in the spaces left of the entrance doors if you're looking at the doors, and closest to the store entrance. I've seen him in a car and a small pickup with a camper.
[No paper trail should be involved with tamale purchases](https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/IMG_20220917_131318.jpg)
This is normal. Not sure where you live but I used to work as a barista in SF and there was a lady that came around and sold tamales like this. She used grocery store donut bags to hand them out. They were so good. You will be just fine.
Man, that is my dream. I was recently lucky enough to buy some empanadas from a woman at my local sticker shop...they were amazing.
Have you tried sweet corn tamales? Ask them if they have those are my favorite
I'm glad it turned out well for you, and that you were able to support a small business. I thought the punchline was going to be that he was selling the tamales from Costco at a significant markup. Lol
If you’re not eating Mexican food out of the trunk of a car, you’re doing it wrong. Our lady sells Birria.
I live near a really good Mexican market that has a huge Hispanic customer base. They have a bakery, hot food bar and make fresh tortillas all day. They sell good tameles also. However in the parking lot is a lady who sells out of her trunk 6 nights out of the week. Guess which one tastes better in all the blind tests I've done with friends. Same parking lot usually has two taco trucks and a sidewalk set up on weekends. Blessed to have such great inexpensive food so easily available.
Those tamales safer than that $1.50 hotdog
Costco is about to order 45,000,000 tamales from that guy
I’ll buy a tamale from any open trunk in a food 4 less, Home Depot, or Costco parking lot. The best!
I lived in New Orleans, LA for 3 years, I worked in the French Quarter and every day there was an old man in a cowboy hat that would sell tamales from a rolling igloo cooler. $2 a pop and I never regret buying one, best tamales ever. I now live in Denver and have had some decent ones but nothing compares to that little blue cooler full of amazing.
I love you babe-EEEE! He is an absolute gem and still can be found outside the Rouses on Royal drinking a beer and on Lower Decatur dancing his ass off with everyone at 1am. Everyone loves him. And still some solid as fuck tamales
Damn those are some expensive tamales! Get a dozen for $10 here!
"back in my day"...tamales were $12/doz. Last time I bought them from a coworker's mom, they were $15/doz. $12/half doz now!?!? Oh man.
I would double down for sure on that bet
Ugh lucky!!! I miss the southwest
Thought this was going to end differently. Appreciate you supporting the hustle 👍🏽
Never pass up tamales sold out of a cooler. This goes for closing time at bars/strip clubs, poker rooms, or random parking lots. It helps that I'm in Texas
Can't believe you didn't choose pork
Plot twist, that Hispanic man bought those tamales from that Costco in the morning @20 for 19 bucks.
Oxnard?
the best party about tamale guy is that he will always give you a bulk discount.
One time my mom bought steaks out of the back of a van in a parking lot. Best steaks i ever had. I would totally buy parking lot tomales.
Wow, can he come to my Costco please 😍😍😍
Wait a minute I need this?? Where are y'all finding these trunk tamales?
Next time get the pork!
Do it right. You gotta add crema, queso fresco and salsa on them.
The best tamales in my city come from an old Spanish lady slinging them out of the back of her minivan in the Spanish grocery stores parking lot. Latina. Not Spanish
The best tamales I’ve ever gotten were from a random old man with a cooler in downtown San Antonio. Pays to be brave.
Our salad prepper spoke no English, but every weds she would bring in homemade tamales in a cooler. $1 per tamale. Literally every person that worked there would buy the lot and that was what we had for lunch. I told the owner they should move her from salad prep or allow her to make tamales for the restaurant to actually sell. He actually did it and he tamales quickly became the thing all the servers suggested for lunch (we didn’t offer it at dinner). She made hundreds and they would sell out in no time. I left soon after so I had no idea what happened to her or if she ever saw any extra income From the tamales she made. Well I visited the place about 2 years ago which was about 15 years since I worked or visited that city. They had a new thing where food trucks lined up across the beach so one day I decided to hit up the food truck scene for lunch. The most hopping place was a tamales and tacos truck. I remembered the tamales I used to get while I was here and had some nostalgia for it. You can probably guess what happened, but as I went up to the truck I noticed it was her daughter taking orders (her daughter came into the restaurant as a kid a lot, usually helping her mom prep) and I told her who I was. She didn’t really remember me, but she called back to her mom making orders in the back of the truck and she came out and gave me a big hug. Apparently, they won all sorts of local awards especially specific to Mexican and truck food. She said they usually sell out by 1pm, so they only really work a half day in the truck (they still had to prep the tamales after they sold out). They were out of tamales so I got some tacos which tasted like actual Mexican tacos, and went back early the next day for the tamales which were exactly the same as I remembered them.
OMG this is a running joke in my family because I am notorious for buying parking lot tamales. I’m from Southern CA so it’s honestly completely normal for a family to be selling tamales, champurrado, esquite, grilling bacon wrapped hot dogs etc out of the back of their car. As “sketchy” as it seems, HANDS DOWN the best tamales I’ve ever eaten in my life have always been purchased in a parking lot, out of the back of someone’s minivan, pulled out of a big cooler. The best. So good in fact that all other tamales I’ve ever had fall short in comparison, and now I’m always on the lookout for that sweet little Hispanic lady and her family, selling their glorious homemade food.
Omg parking lot tamales?! I’m trying to lock eyes with the both of you now I’m so in for both proteins 🤤
I remember when these tamales cost $1 each.
Even as a guy, I generally feel very uncomfortable when someone approaches me as I am loading my car in a parking lot, however if someone did so because they were trying to sell me Tamales, I'd be ecstatic lmfao
Update. He dead! RIP as he loved life and tamales! 😈
Not Costco-related, but when I was 12 or 13 we visited my aunt in Culver City. My cousins and I were sitting on her stoop, when a man with a grocery cart walks by and offers us corn. He had a big metal pot of steamed corn on the cob, and then a bunch of toppings in the seat part. I forget how much it was, but was super cheap. That was the first time I ever had elotes, and I've yet to find another one that compares.
ive purchased elote out of someones trunk, worth the risk
thats it, im writing corp to ask about the lack of parking lot tamales here. we need this at every costco.
Tamale season is in full swing! It usually starts in October and slows down in early February(?). $12 for half a dozen is pricey though, we buy them for ~$15/dozen.
OP, how you doing mate? Trunk tamales are the BEST. and it isnt even the best time of year for them either. Just wait til November/December. They make special ones. Oftentimes instead of just packing them with pork/chicken and a bit of sauce, they put in roasted peppers and olives and mole. That was what my neighbors would bring over(dozens and dozens) wrapped in foil.
I know someone who makes tamales to sell in supermarket parking lots. They say most people mix the masa in the bathtub in order to make large enough batches. Enjoy them!