Initiate Self Destruct Sequence (Death by tamale picture thread)

[puerco-bellies]

Ali and I made about 6 dozen tamales last weekend. While looking at recipes we discovered that Los Angeles was having a Tamale Festival this weekend. We hopped on the Metro-Rail (L.A.'s own subway system) and after transferring to a couple of lines we exited at the McArthur Park Station across the street from the event.

We walked the event looking for the past winners, and sampled tamales from the vendors who place first in the different categories, beef, pork, sweet, people's choice. We learned that there is a great variation of styles from the Southwest U.S. to Central America OMG most were so very good. Surprisingly for me one of the very best was made with corn (elote).

Our plan was to buy a winning entry and sit down tasting and trying to deconstruct the recipe. We got some great ideas for our next batch, and got home before the rain too!

Mmmmm.. tamales.



This vendor had this cream and strawberry mixture we could not resist.



Looking to the west.



Now to the east.



On a side note this is an L.A. landmark since the great depression, Langer's Deli one of the very best places to get pastrami's and THE very best corned beef in town (IMHO).



Thanks for looking.