Making The Rounds: The Tamale Lady!

Since I have been living in San Francisco I have been hearing talk of this citywide icon known as "The Tamale Lady." The Tamale Lady lives and works all over The Mission, but where to find her exactly is a mystery! Rumor has it that she makes the best tamales in all of San Francicso. She's famous to the locals and even has her own write up, along with countless other restaurants in San Francisco, on yelp.com. She'll pop up at a local bar, maybe she'll set up a stand on 16th & Valencia, you just never know where you might run into her. Though some say she always knows where she's needed most - and that's usually at a local bar full of the drunk and ravenously hungry! I have always been very curious about this special Tamale Lady, though I have never worked too hard to seek her out. I'm not like a huge tamale fan or anything, but I have always hoped that one day our paths would cross.

This week after checking out at Trader Joe's that day finally came! There she stood, as we walked out the door, with her little cart and tamale in hand. She was just as cute and spunky as I could have imagined. "Want a tamale?" the magic words gleefully spilled from her mouth.

"Yes I do!"

Boy was it worth it! When we shelled out our $2, unwrapped the outer corn layer and sank our teeth into that warm, moist tamale I instantly understood what all the fuss was about! Mmmmmm Mmmmm! This lady has magic in her fingers and today was my lucky day! I couldn't stand there admiring her too long, though, before I knew it people were pushing me out of the way to have their daily dose of the tamale lady's delectable treat. They all knew that if they didn't catch her now, there was no telling when she might pop up next.

Thank you tamale lady for being there before I left San Francisco. It would have been sad to have left, never knowing the pleasure of your sweet, sweet goodness!