Lucy's Tamales, San Jose

[Melanie Wong]

Tonight I took a break from traffic to make a stop at Lucy's Tamales on Story Road. I bought some of the pork tamales ($1.50 ea) and shared them with my parents. These are good size and generously filled with tender shredded pork. The chili sauce blended with the pork was quite salty and not that complex, but these were satisfactory. Wrapped in plastic on a styro tray, they stayed hot for the hour-long ride down to Salinas.

I also got an atole, and now I understand rworange's comment about dishwater or something like that. This tasted not of corn, milk, chocolate, or vanilla. Hard to put a name to the flavor other than earthy sugar, dirty something or other. Lumpy and runny too. The pricing is odd: $1.25 for 12 ounces or $2.00 for 16 ounces. Luckily I only invested the smaller amount.

Previous visit to Lucy's Tamales -
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

[deelish]

Just finished my stash of tamales from Lucy's in Watsonville. I found the pork ones to be the best of the bunch with good ratio of pork to masa, corny tasting, fluffy masa, nice well seasoned strips of pork. I did not care for the jalapeno-cheese as there were not enough jalapeno slices for my taste. I also sampled the elote, and found they needed cheese and salsa to perk them up, they were dry and a little sweet with no corn kernels. These were a good size/value for the price at about $1.50 each.

[Melanie Wong]

Here are the addresses for the two locations in the Bay Area:

974 Story Rd.
San Jose
408-275-TAMALES

233C S. White Rd.
San Jose
408-929-7311

And a little further:

611 Main St.
Watsonville
831-724-7214

[katya]

Do either of the San Jose locations have seating or is strictly a to-go operation?

[Melanie Wong]

The one on Story road that I visited is to-go only, don't know about the other.