Christmas Tamales..

[Beach Chick]

Loved to know where you get your Christmas tamales..
Dine in or store bought..
Feliz Navidad

[SaltyRaisins]

I know I may suffer strong barbs, and may have the nacho cheese sauce aimed at my keyboard for this, but, well, here goes:

The tamales at El Indio are quite good.

There. Though not the Oaxacan tamales I prefer, they are exactly like the ones the Californiano part of my family has been making from scratch for the last (literally) hundred or so years every Navidad.

Cheers?

[Beach Chick]

Feliz Salty..
Did you put up your body armour flame shield when you uttered the word, 'El Indio' ?
I'm sure some of the tribe are assembling their incendiary devices with a myriad of hydrocarbon concoctions as I type.
; )

[hamboney]

Not 'sweet', but...a buddy of mine hails from Lubbock and drives for FedEx; brought me back a dozen last month from Pedro's! YUM, YUM! Boo, all gone.

[Beach Chick]

I was at Costco yesterday and got 10 cheese and chile tamales as back up..$10 for 10 and they had the vendor serving them with guac and they were quite good..all the food vultures were circling for seconds and the yummy sounds echoed down to the book aisles.
I'm going to go out and see if I can find some local tamals but had to have back up, just in case.
Besos to all..

[stevuchan]

Picked up some tamales at Nortgate this weeked and they were really good, 10 for 9.99 and free champurrado, which I did not get due to transport issues. Res, Pollo and Puerco were all good, they also had pina, strawberry and elote IICR. Place was a mad house, the produce section was a straight war zone, some crazy abueles were fighting over chiles.

[DiningDiva]

Ah, the produce department at Northgate. Best poblanos in town, not to mention all the rest of those you-can-only-find-them-at-Northgate items

[Island]

Hey I just bought those on Friday! Not wild for tamales, but am for green chiles and I thought they were tasty. People were also loading up the chicken and pork, but they only have the green chile this time of year..

[Beach Chick]

Love all the replies!
Besides a cold beer with tamales, a nice Merry Edwards Pinot is quite good..

[cristina]

With the sweet ones, try champurrado...in Mexico City on Tuesday at Flor de Lis I had the best champurrado of my life.

Link: http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

[cookieshoes]

I love the tamales from El Salvadoreno on Imperial, between 28th and 29th.

The masa is more moist, at times almost creamy. And they do many in banana leaves.

Great stuff. The restaurant in general is a gem. Wonderful, clean sitdown and nicely decorated place. And the Pupusas!

[DiningDiva]

Mmmmm...pupusas

[syrupy sweetness]

Yes El Salvadoreno has great pupusas and delicious tamales. Go there all the time!!! :)

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Restaurante El Salvadoreno
2845 Imperial Ave, San Diego, CA 92102

[foodiechick]

Homemade...along with Posole. Welcome to my Sunday this weekend.

[Beach Chick]

What time should I be there?
12 pk of Modelo stubbies or Patron?
; )

[DiningDiva]

Noche Buena

[Beach Chick]

Stay thristy my friend..

[DiningDiva]

;-)

[The Office Goat]

Is there any easy way to get Noche Buena this side of the border this year?

And thanks for the thread, gotta remember to pick up some tamales. Linkery has turkey ones to go, but we'll also need some sweet ones if I can grab 'em.

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Linkery
3794 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104

[DiningDiva]

Well, believe it or not, BevMo! had Noche Buena last year. Not sure if they've got it this year or not as I haven't looked. There was a period of time when it was pretty easy to get on our side of the border. It's gotten increasingly more difficult over the last 2-3 years. Along with Indio, Victoria, Montejo and Leon it's one of my favorite Mexican beers.

[The Office Goat]

Thanks! Wow, I'd given up looking for it for a few years.

[Gypsy Jan]

Have you tried Bohemia Obscura? To my taste, Noche Bueno is a bit raw and bitter. The Bohemia dark beer is more balanced and always available.

[DiningDiva]

Yes. I like all varieties of Bohemia :-)

[DiningDiva]

Tamales Ancira, but usually I make them. This year I'm schlepping everything up to Sacto for the tamalada

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Tamales Ancira
707 S Escondido Blvd, Escondido, CA 92025

[Beach Chick]

The 'tamalada' sound like a fun time..

I've had good tamales from Tamales Ancira but I didn't know they made Christmas tamales.
I used to schlepp down to Chula Vista at their factory off the 5..worked out to about $1 a tamale.
Thanks DD and a very Merry Christmas to you!

[Island]

What are Christmas tamales? How do they differ from 363 other day of the year tamales?

[Beach Chick]

Dulces are common at least when I lived in Guadalajara for the Christmas season with roasted walnuts, raisins, cinammon and other spices that are so delicious.
Wrapped in banana leaves during holiday season..

[Island]

Never had a sweet tamale. Thanks for the scoop.

[DiningDiva]

Sweet tamales are really wonderful. You can generally fine "fresa" (strawberry) and piña (pineapple) pretty easily in SD. I think Tamales Ancira does them both on a fairly regular basis.

One of the best tamales I've ever had was a sweet and savory combination tamal. It had a piloncillo (dark brown sugar) syrup mixed into the masa along with raisins that had been rehydrated and ground chicarron. These were so good. A little sweet, a little savory, a little corny, a little porky, very rich, very addicting.

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Tamales Ancira
707 S Escondido Blvd, Escondido, CA 92025

[The Office Goat]

Liz from Ancira used to always come by my work and sell them. I remember I always was looking for the sweet ones with raisins, but she usually only had the pineapple ones if she had sweet at all.

[SaltyRaisins]

Too bad you have to schlep. I lived in midtown Sacto for over a year some years ago, and still haven't found an Italian grocery anywhere in the US as good as Corti Bros. Can't believe there's not a Mexican equivalent up there...

Wish I could have a tamal ala DD...

Cheers!