Our Lady of Tamale

December 16, 2003 3:54 PM

Tamale Ladies! Who knew there was more than one? I just knew about our Tamale Lady who keeps us fed out in the beer garden at Zeitgeist and who had a rockin' birthday party not long ago. There's even a film about her. Is your local dive graced with visits from such a blessed hot sauce toting angel?
posted by badstone (10 comments total)

what i thought was funny about sf tamale lady's bday party was that the food was horrible! i wanted tamales and instead they were serving this rice-glop.

it was astonishing to see how many fans she has.
posted by jcruelty at 4:12 PM on December 16, 2003

I don't know if Houston has a tamale lady, but I get mine at Berryhill.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 4:19 PM on December 16, 2003

We used to have a lady who brought tamales around every Thursday to the lunchroom of a missile factory in which I worked. She carried them all in a giant Coleman cooler which she bungee-corded into a Radio Flyer wagon, and she'd pull that wagon all over the industrial park until it was empty.

The last time I saw her was the day Gulf War I began. After the bombing started, the guards were instructed not to allow anyone into the area without a pass. When the restriction was finally lifted, post-war, she never came back. I've often wondered what happened to her.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:22 PM on December 16, 2003

But the burgers at Zeitgeist are so good... Tamale lady may bring the nosh and some good advice, but Frank Chu (beware popups) is by far my favourite.
posted by shoepal at 4:43 PM on December 16, 2003

I once summoned the Tamale Lady by means of my mental powers. I was drinking at Zeitgeist with some BALUG dudes, and one of them said he'd only ever seen her once.

"Maybe she'll come tonight," I said.

Seconds later, there she was.

I quickly wished for world peace, and a pony.
posted by rdc at 4:52 PM on December 16, 2003

The tamale lady is one of those SF institutions that reminds me why I love this place. I don't think the tamales are all that, but whenever I've gotten one, there was nothing else in the world that could satisfy the midnight drunk hunger so completely.
posted by greasepig at 5:19 PM on December 16, 2003

I enjoyed a tamale lady in LA, while working around where Figaroa crossed 26th street. Once a week at lunch time she came, tamales in a bucket. My first tamales ever, and wonderful! Not hot! Just real traditional Mexican food.
posted by Goofyy at 4:31 AM on December 17, 2003

Chicago has many tamale men, but I've never seen a tamale lady. Instead, we have the Bread Lady, who sells "special" muffins and breads in bars. I've seen her, but I've never sampled her products.
posted by acornface at 9:24 AM on December 17, 2003

Milwaukee's East side has Frank, the Pepparoni/Cannoli man. He makes the rounds of dozens of East side bars 365 days a year. He'll walk into a bar and yell "Pepparoni...Cannnoli". I was drunk once and asked if there was any dog meat in his beef sticks (the Pepparonis). He gave me a Sicilian hex, and it took years of apologizing before he would embrace me once more.
posted by sharksandwich at 1:52 PM on December 17, 2003

Now you've got me craving tamales, and I don't know where to find good ones in midtown NYC :(
posted by Songdog at 6:46 PM on December 17, 2003