Best Tamale on the North Side

Living in Roger's Park, I'm bound to run into some stellar Mexican food. However, as of late, I've found myself (mildly) obsessed with tamales. Mmm... So far I've been limited my search for the best tamale to that stretch of Clark between Howard and Devon.

Does anyone have any recos for a great tamale? Either on Clark or beyond?

Thanks!

Shoes

You might enjoy this thread:

The tamales of Clark Street, Rogers Park

Best,
Michael

Thanks Michael!

I should probably let the world know of the places I've tried:

Tamales Lo Mejor de Guerro (7024 N. Clark)
Pretty good tamales, which is to be expected given that tamales is ALL that they have. I tried the chicken, pork and jalepeno cheese. They were only alright: The pork wasn't particularly memorable. The cheese one wasn't melted so it was kind of hard and bland, even with the jalepenos speckled throughout. The chicken: muy tasty with big flavorful chunks of chicken in a spicy red sauce.

El Famous Burrito (7047 N. Clark)
They only offer a pork tamale here, but it suits the bill. So far, my favorite of the ones I've tried. However this may be biased given my appreciation for the generous amounts of salsa they give you along with or the free cups of fresh chopped onions and cilantro that they give away for free.

El Cid (2115 N Milwaukee Ave)
Maybe I should give the one on Kedzie a try, but I was sadly disappointed with their tamale given how good the rest of their menu can be. Kind of small compared to others and not particularly flavorful.

Goya frozen tamales
Good, but not really tamale-y. More like that corn souffle stuff we have at Thanksgiving made with Jiffy corn muffin mix... Oh, and very light on the pork. However, despite the criticism, still a very tasty bite indeed.

Jewel Osco Deli tamales (the one on Howard and McCormick)
Unless you like your tamales filled with a shredded beef combo remnant of Dinty Moore, this is a pass.

Little "tamale" rolls wrapped in blue & white wax paper and tied with string sold in Dominick's frozen food case
They're like kitty litter. A little bit of my soul died...

Did the Rogers Park El Famous re-open? I thought it had closed...

I was there a month or so ago and it was open, but from what I understand it's been there forever.

Regardless, to answer your question: "Yes, it's open. Hurrah!"

I like the Tamalero in front of the dollar store just north of the old Supermercado Morelia parking lot. His tamales are a little sparse on fillings, but they are very tasty (and spicy). He is the closest vendor to my house, so I may be a little biased.

The Goya tamales are not Mexican tamales. Cuban, and you nail the description. PS, while Goya is huge, it is solidly east coast Cuban-Puerto Rican-Dominican oriented (though started by Spaniards in NJ). Only recently have they jumped into the vast Mexican market.

I stopped last week on the way home from work for an assortment of tamales from Tamales Lo Mejor de Guerrero. The ones I've liked best here are the chicken, but the pork have been good, too. Not all varieties are available at all times. I haven't made it to the place on the weekend yet, when pozole is offered - but that's on my list of things to do.

I have never had better Tamales than the ones the "Tamale Guy" sells out of his cooler at selected bars around the city. If you ever see him, buy a bag!! Cheese is my favorite flavor.

Ive been going to the Rogers Park El Famous since 1985 and Ive never seen it closed.

I just got back from Jesse's Grill on N. Western Ave where I had the pork (I think) tamale...even though I asked for a chicken tamale.

Needless to say, it wasn't terrible but it wasn't fantastic either. Kind of dry, both in the masa and meat department..and it was covered with some mystery orange sauce of indeterminate flavor. I didn't finish it. Also, while I could tell that it was cooked in a husk (a plus in any book) they stripped me of the fun of actually unwrapping it myself. Mleh, minor details.

I was much happier with my little shredded pork taco that came along with.

My perfect tamale search charges on...

I've lived in Rogers Park since 2002 and have never been brave enough to buy a tamale from the woman in front of McDonald's.

That's kind of embarrassing to admit, because generally I'll try anything at least once, but I worried a bit about the safety factor of eating a pork tamale that has been stored at a questionable temperature. But seeing as how several LTHers seem to have consumed them without dropping dead (at least not immediately...those suckers can't be good for one's vascular health ) I think I will have to guy up and give them a try.

Oddly, I have no problems eating elotes by the bucketful. Speaking of which, is it that time of year yet?

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:Oddly, I have no problems eating elotes by the bucketful. Speaking of which, is it that time of year yet?

In terms of "time of year" for street food in Rogers Park, I am avidly looking forward to the return of the fruit vendor from around Morse and Clark, from whom Seth Z and Kerensa obtained one of my favorite elements of the first North Clark-a-Thon.

Here's GWiv's photo of it. Looks simple, but simple is good, and the chili powder takes it a step past simple...

germuska wrote:In terms of "time of year" for street food in Rogers Park, I am avidly looking forward to the return of the fruit vendor from around Morse and Clark, from whom Seth Z and Kerensa obtained one of my favorite elements of the first North Clark-a-Thon.

mmmm fruit. The vendors are back and they were doing pretty good business yesterday, once again camped out at the SW corner of Morse and Clark. I got a giant container of fresh fruit for $6, including shakes of hot pepper and salt and some hearty squeezes of orange and lime juice over the top.

It was a delightful lunch appetizer while I was running some errands in the neighborhood -- well, about a quarter of it was about as much as I could eat at one time.

The mix included mango, pineapple, papaya, orange, coconut, watermelon and I think one or two other things. In retrospect, I would ask him to leave out the coconut -- I'd never had it in big chunks like that before, but it doesn't have a lot of flavor, and it takes a lot of work to chew. There was one other fruit in there that was not too exciting; it was some kind of pale melon, but I didn't see him cutting it and couldn't recognize what it was.

As opposed to at the NCAT, my fruit came in a large cup. I enjoyed watching as the vendor topped the cup off, carefully slotting in pieces of fruit around the edges so as to provide a kind of fence so that he could pile more fruit on top.

Summer is a-comin in!

d4v3 wrote:I like the Tamalero in front of the dollar store just north of the old Supermercado Morelia parking lot. His tamales are a little sparse on fillings, but they are very tasty (and spicy). He is the closest vendor to my house, so I may be a little biased.

Ok, this is the second time Ive heard high praise of this guy (Nory of Cafe
Salamera, before she was off in Peru, had said the same thing... the guy
at the dollar store, oldish, with glasses). Ive looked for him ever since,
but never found him - every time I drive by, there is no such tamale
vendor. Once I saw a vendor in that parking lot, so pulled ni.. but it
was a woman, and she didnt have tamales at all, only elotes.

That dollar store is closed now (it was called, um.. SuperMall or some
such?) Morelia is also closed, of course. Has the guy moved? If so,
does anyone know where he has moved to?

c8w

c8w wrote:That dollar store is closed now

Not just closed.... demolished!

Sorry, don't know where he is, but that stretch of Clark is on the other side of moribund. Razed lots on one side and a park on the other means nothing but cars zipping by most of the time. (That park was even pretty dead this weekend.)

I didn't really cover the whole neighborhood but on Sunday afternoon the only tamale vendor I saw was catching people leaving the church on Lunt.

The dollar shop that was torn down moved south of El Rey del Tacos. The tamalero moved up to the shop that is just north of old Morelia parking lot (south of Cuetzala), which is still standing.

They tore down the walls of the old SM Morelia last week, and the whole neighborhood was filled with a moist putrid stench, which was, no doubt, why Joe found the park empty. Apparently there was some rotting food left to fester in that building for the last 6 months. I can't imagine the tamale guy is still hanging around there. I am going to ask the guys who own that shop, if they know where he went.

Just had some chicken tamales from Chilo y Chela this morning. They offer chicken, pork(verde and roja), cheese and rajas, sweet tamales, plus champurrado and arroz con leche. Pretty much just tamales, and big meaty, tasty ones at that.
Chilo Y Chela
4213 W. North Ave.
(773) 269-2052

There is a new Tamale joint opening up in February or early March by Carlos Reyna's of Maiz. It will be called Tamalli and will have a few tables for dining in, but mostly take-out. BYO
It is is anything like his Maiz, it will be delicious!

Well, I am not a tamales expert but the one that I ate in Xni-Pec was a pretty good alternative. As you may already know they focus in Yucatecan cuisine and the tamales is wrapped in banana leaves for a nice change! Banana leaves give a nice slightly sweet, nutty flavor to the tamales.

G Wiv has a nice picture of it in Xni-Pec thread.

5135 W 25th St
Cicero, IL 60804
(708) 652-8680