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One holiday tradition that I look forward to every year is the smell and taste of fresh tamales. In areas with a large Hispanic influence, such as Lubbock, it's almost a holiday itself when you first see tamales being sold, or smell the distinct aroma of masa being cooked.

I remember 30 years ago when I first moved to Southern California, I lived in the suburban city of San Gabriel, just to the east of L.A. The area had a heavy immigrant population, which lent itself to an amazing array of authentic Hispanic food. I will never forget the first time I ate off of a Taco Truck in East Los Angeles. I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. Most evenings, the air was thick with the smell of corn over heat.

Amazingly, that may be my strongest memory of Los Angeles. Not Hollywood, not the beach, but the smell of tamales.

After moving to Utah, and then the East Coast, it became rare to find anyone making or selling this holiday tradition. It's just not as embedded in the culture.

So, you can imagine my delight when I began scrolling through Facebook marketplace and stumbled upon this ad:

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YES! TAMALES!

Not only is she making tamales the entire month of November, but delivering them to your place of business. That's service.

Ten bucks for a dozen fresh, homemade Tamales? That's worth it to me.

I have a long-time friend (who I haven't spoken to for several years, unfortunately) who always posts photos during the holidays of his family as they carry on the tradition of making tamales at Christmas. I always smile when I see those posts and wish we were closer so i could pop over and enjoy some tamales with him again.

That being said, I'm just grateful that I live in an area once again that actually has some culture.

Who's up for tamales?


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