Los Tamales

I ran across an interesting spot for you tamale fans last week while driving to Freddy’s in Cicero. On the south side of 16th street, about 3½ blocks east of Freddy’s, sandwiched between a garage and another restaurant, is a small shop called Los Tamales. If you’re not looking for it, you could easily drive past and miss it, their sign is not very prominent. It is a carry-out place, but there was one table which perhaps could be used in a pinch, but I am just guessing.

LT makes both the usual corn husk-wrapped variety, and also a larger one which is wrapped in banana leaves. The regular ones are .85 each, or $9/dozen. The large ones are $2.50 each. I was very impressed by the large variety of tamales available. This is their normal selection:
Verdes (green, pork)
Verdes (chicken, spinach)
Rajas (cheese)
Rojos (red)
Chipilin (cheese)
Chicharron (pork)
Veracruzanos (corn, pork)
Corundas (pork)
Chiapanecos (chicken)
Oaxaquenos (chicken)
Frijole (beans)
Atun (tuna)
Vegetarianos (vegetarian)

Also, they make 6 different sweet (dessert) tamales. This is by far the biggest selection of tamales that I ever seen. It was the first time I had even heard of some of these suckers. I was told that typically about half of them will be available. The business is owned by the Velazquez family. When I went there were only 2 people working, Maria (cook/owner), and a guy who took the orders, whom I think is her son. Maria doesn’t do much English, so if the guy is not there don’t expect to get much feedback about the food.

EAT IT! I bought a dozen various kinds of tamales. I tried the regular type with these fillings: pork, cheese and peppers, bean, raisins, and walnuts. The only other tamales that I could compare these to that you might be familiar with are those sold by Guadalupanos. The masa at LT has a smoother texture, and they are slightly smaller than the typical Guada tamale. Also, these were all seasoned fairly hot. They did not seem to offer a choice of mild or hot like Guada. The pork, cheese and pepper, and bean were good, but the stars of the show were definitely the raisin and walnut dessert tamales. It was my first experience with those fillings, and they were great, especially the one with the ground walnuts. I also tried one of their Oaxaquenos tamales. This one is the larger variety (roughly 2.5 times the size of the regular tamales), and is wrapped in banana leaves. It was filled with chicken and seasoned differently than the other ones, and was very good. I’m jonesing for one of their tuna tamales, hopefully some will be available on my next visit.

Their hours: Tuesday through Friday from 5AM to 8PM, Saturday from 9AM to 8PM, Sunday from 9AM to 3PM, and closed on Monday. Where else could you get a tamale fix at 5AM? Their menu has a few other offerings besides the tamales, but not many. No burritos!

Los Tamales
5735 W. 16th St.
Cicero, IL 60804
Phone: 708-222-3544

Very interesting. Thanks. The regional styles have differences that go beyond big/small corn husk/banana leaf. The Veracruz style with fresh corn is closer to the Cuban style, e.g. I'm interested to see how the Chiapas style differs from the Oaxaqueno. It's very unusual to see chipilin, which is one of those mysterious weeds like epazote

JeffB wrote:I'm interested to see how the Chiapas style differs from the Oaxaqueno. It's very unusual to see chipilin, which is one of those mysterious weeds like epazote

I picked up a few more tamales yesterday. Here's a few observations. The Oaxaqueno chicken tamale is the only one so far that I have found that seems to be made with mole sauce. I tried a chipilin shrimp tamale (banana leaf wrapper); it was milder than most of the others and had what apparently is the "chipilin" taste. Hard to describe, but very good. Also had a very good pineapple tamale.

Stopped by tonight and grabbed a few pics...

Panther, nice pics. Did you buy anything?

Sorry for the late report. It has been a brutal 24 hours.

Yup! We did order a smattering of tamales.

The regular ones (Pork (green) and bean) tended to be on the small side. I guess I have been spoiled by the street vendors outside Carniceria Jimenez on North Ave. Good flavor and texture to the masa.

The shrimp ones had shrimp like a paste (probably dried) and a strong fish flavor.

The Oaxaqueno chicken tamale was very good! But then again I am a sucker for a good mole.

One of the plain masa ones with herbs was a different experience.

We also tried several in the banana leaves, there were too many to keep track of. The banana leaves impart a slightly sweet flavor.

My bride loved the way some were tied with a small fiber bow.

Several of the tamales were in short supply as I was going to order perhaps 3 of each but sometimes only one or two were available of some types.

In addition to the one small table there was a counter along one wall with a few chairs.

This place is very close to home and I will make a return visit. The owners are very nice and mentioned that there have been several visitors 'from the internet' and the young gent was curious so I gave him the address and invited him to drop by.

Here is a scan of the printed menu...

Panther in the Den wrote:This place is very close to home and I will make a return visit. The owners are very nice and mentioned that there have been several visitors 'from the internet' and the young gent was curious so I gave him the address and invited him to drop by.

What address are you referring to? You're right about those mole bambinos, they're killers!

Cogito wrote:

Panther in the Den wrote:This place is very close to home and I will make a return visit.

What address are you referring to?

The one on 16th.

I wonder what day or time they are hopping and have a ample supply of most everything?

Probably on weekends during the day? I will make a visit on Saturday.

Just got back from LT. Still going strong, and maybe even going better?
The place now has a big showcase in front instead of the simple table with a cash register on it. Next to the case, is a warming table with about 4 trays in it. They now offer birria pozole/menudo on the wknds. Not sure if they had pozole/menudo on wknds before, but I am pretty sure they didn't have birria. Anyway, a dozen chicken in green sauce was now 11.00 even, and still nice and spicy. I had never seen the lady who was in there before today, but whatever. Just an update that they are still open after some mentions of them perhaps closing a while ago.

Stopped by with my bride last night (dinner and movie (DVD) on the cheap ).

Was warmly welcomed by an older daughter and asked what was available...

Pork with red, chicken with green and cheese with dried red pepper. Ordered a half dozen of the pork and another half of the chicken and sat down to eat. She asked if we would like some hot sauce and a small cup was presented.

Less masa (IE: better meat to masa ratio but a tad smaller) than my first visit soon after they first opened and the consistency and flavor was good! Add a dash of the home made hot sauce (nice dark red and chunky) wrapped it up well. Not long after we started she came by with a small bowl of homemade sour cream and soon after some grated cheese. Nice touche and a tasty addition.

The filling was a tad inconsistent as sometimes one end would be mostly masa with the opposite at the other end.

Towards the end I ventured to try the cheese and pepper and over her warning of 'it is hot!' I gave it a go. Not hot until I got to the chunk of pepper at the end. A small spread of beans filled it out.

Before leaving I asked what was the best time to get the full variety as mentioned on the window IE: The Chicken with mole and she mentioned that they have them now. Either we failed to communicate upon arrival or they had just completed the cooking process.

Have a few that made it home (along with a cup of the excellent hot sauce) will make a great snack for tomorrow.

My Bride and I were looking for some carryout last night and this was one of the spots in mind.

Closed and something else has moved in. Didn't catch the name as we were on a mission.

Not enough love.