Maria the Tamale Lady

I would hardly consider myself a tamale expert, but every once in awhile a tamale comes along that's so terrific its deliciousness can hardly be disputed. (If you want to dispute me, I will gladly argue with you.) This is the story of that tamale.

Wandering down Roosevelt Avenue on a late night crawl led by Jeff Orlick, we stumbled upon a row of three tamale vendors directly beneath the 103d Street station. Though we were incredibly full by this point, we decided to try some tamales in the interest of science.

For a while I was content to ignorantly snack on the tamale I had purchased from the first vendor, a guy with a flashy sign and not much else. That was until I was fed a bite of Maria's tamale. I looked at my now disgusting tamale and couldn't throw it in the trash fast enough before pushing through the crowd now congregating around Maria. My fullness dissipated, I quickly ate two tamales.