Houstonians please take note. We had lunch at home today: tamales from the
Texas Tamale Company. In addition to their store locations, they also sell through several major local grocers (including, of course, Fiesta Mart) and Bering's hardware store (I kid you not!).
Why are these tamales soooo good? Well, they're almost traditional, except
- they're gluten-free,
- they're made with soy oil instead of lard,
- two of their flavors (spinach-cheese and black bean) are vegetarian, and
- they're locally made... Houston locavores please take note.
Between us, Stella and I demolished a dozen in no time. If you're inviting guests to share them, be sure you buy plenty; they're not pricey compared to other brands of frozen tamales, especially considering the high quality. Serve them with queso or (my favorite) cilantro sauce made by the same company.
No, no one paid me to promote these. I just wanted to share one of the best food finds I've experienced in a long time.
mmmmmmm yum!
ReplyDeletekarmanot, that's what I said, too, right after I finished licking my lips like a satisfied cat!
ReplyDeleteHere-bouts we all stake out our favorite Mex mobiles, which appear here and there around the county, selling homemade burritos, tamales, and other good things.
ReplyDeletekarmanot - yes, Houston is full of those, too; they show up at construction sites at lunchtime to feed the construction workers. My problem with those is not flavor or authenticity... I'm sure they're the real thing... but their all-meat fillings and use of lard. I might look the other way about the lard, but I don't like putting chunks of actual meat in my mouth.
ReplyDeleteSteve, a lot of the food trucks do have bean and cheese tamales as well as the meat ones.
ReplyDeleteIf you're ever out in Pecos, there's a little place called the Tamale Factory that makes good fresh ones...
BTW, all tamales that are properly made are gluten free, because corn masa (the only correct and proper flour to use to make tamales) doesn't have gluten.
Sounds great! It's not easy to get a good tamale ... and I love cilantro!
ReplyDeleteActually, Mad, in Texas it's very easy to get a good tamale; what's hard is to find a good veggie tamale. These are outstanding.
ReplyDeleteBadTux, I'm never in Pecos, and anything made fresh in Pecos would certainly not be fresh by the time it got to Houston. Yes, the tamales we had were made with masa; nothing else gives quite the right texture to them. Houston has such a large and active Hispanic community that we are blessed with a wide selection of truly outstanding Mexican food and other Central and South American foods as well. In fact, Mexican restaurants that are not good simply don't make a go of it here!
ReplyDelete