Guide: Where to get top-notch tamales in Los Angeles right now

For the tamal-obsessed, here is a quick and up-to-date checklist of the best local tamales in town, from the Valley to Watts.
Bill Addison, Daniel Hernandez • Los Angeles Times • December 9, 2021
Tamales rate among the essential staple foods of Southern California. At major bus stops and along the bustling food corridors in Latin communities across the region, a decent tamal is never very far. We’re lucky to live in the historic center of...
The full article can be read on the Los Angeles Times website.

Related Articles

The best holiday tamales from around the world in Los Angeles

Bill Addison, Stephanie Breijo, Betty Hallock, Jenn Harris, Lucas Kwan Peterson • Los Angeles Times • December 12, 2022
Tamales are gifts you can open again and again. Wait — those are books. Tamales are gifts you can open once, because once they’re unwrapped they’re going directly into our stomachs. Our 2021 tamales list was such a success, we’re bringing it back....

Review: The star at this new DTLA tamale spot? A machine

Patricia Escárcega • Los Angeles Times • December 18, 2019
Is there an abuelita laboring over a basin of masa in the kitchen of Artesano Tamaleria? There is not. The backbone of the kitchen at this 4-month-old downtown tamale cafe is a hand-operated tamale-making machine called Tio Carlos’ Tamale King....

Tamales Elena y Antojitos is best new L.A. Mexican restaurant

Bill Addison • Los Angeles Times • October 8, 2020
The pozole verde at Tamales Elena y Antojitos in Bell Gardens is a dish to savor in stages. Start at the baseline, with a spoonful of broth. Maria Elena Lorenzo, matriarch of the family that runs the restaurant, mixes pork and chicken in her...
Tamales Elena y Antojitos   

A mole tamale Oaxacan Christmas feast

Jonathan Gold • Los Angeles Times • December 18, 2015
How do you know it’s Christmas at Bricia Lopez’s house? There’s a big Christmas tree in one corner of the art-filled hillside bungalow; a baby bobs in his bouncy chair. Bricia, her sisters Elizabeth Lopez and Paulina Lopez Velasquez, and her...

Where to get your holiday tamales this year

Jonathan Gold • Los Angeles Times • December 13, 2017
Have you ever plowed through a plate of hot uchepos? Not unless you’ve spent time in Michoacán, I’m guessing, or at least visited Birrieria Apatzingan up in Pacoima. Uchepos are like tamales caressed by an angel, clouds of sweet, fresh corn...