Tamale Lady

The Tamale Lady is the best. I’m from Kansas and every year I’m in Tucson I stop by Bookman’s to visit my favorite tamale lady. I wish I had tamales like hers back home!

I love her tamales! They remind me of the perfectly simple ones my mom would buy when we were kids. I love tucson tamale company for something different and elevated, but if you want traditional this is the lady to buy from!

Great tasting, I always buy when I see her. $ 20 worth of tamales makes for a great dinner and dessert!

Dear Tamale Lady,
Can you be my Tucson mom? You wouldn’t mind would you? Your tamales are so close to my heart –but even closer to my heart’s arteries. They remind me of the exceptional «Norteno» style tamales I can get 2 blocks away from my parents’ home back in Texas. Two blocks! Sigh. I eagerly await your response. Perhaps you could send it along with a dozen of your goodies.
Sincerely,
Marina «Me gustan sus tamales» M.

First off, the fact that she’s been given the official title of «Tamale Lady» is hilarious and awesome. As others have said, she’s indeed located in or around the Bookman’s on Grant and Campbell. I feel the need to describe her, because when I first walked in, it was not immediately obvious who/​where she was, and I didn’t want to make any quick assumptions. Racial profiling is bad, after all. When I saw her, she was right by the entrance on the left, standing next to a Bookman’s cart with three Bookman’s bags inside.
She sells her tamales by the half dozen at $ 6 each, or $ 11 for a whole dozen. I don’t know if her tamales change seasonally, but today she offered «green» and «red.» The former was a veggie and cheese tamale, while the latter was beef. Being an avid carnivore, I got the beef, and I could feel from the bag she gave me that they were piping hot, so it seems like the condition in which you receive them depends solely on how recently she made them. I went on a Thursday night around 6:45 pm, if that helps at all.
So. How did they taste? Pretty darn good. They’re very simple in flavor and construction, but honestly I can’t complain, especially for the price. Besides, she was really nice, and that goes a long way in my book. They’re more like blank canvases for you to go a little crazy with. A few slivers of roasted red peppers and a sprinkle of cojita cheese brought it up exactly to where I needed it. She also sold me a bag of homemade tortillas for $ 2.00, which are infinitely better than the stuff you find in grocery stores.
If I still lived near U of A, I’d probably drop by at least once a week. Actually, I still might do that.

Yep, this is a woman with tamales and tortillas in a shopping cart outside (or inside) of Bookman’s.
The deal: she’s there many evenings, but not all. Probably starting around 7 or 8 until close, but I’m not sure. Her tamales are pretty standard fare — I think we got the red beef ones and they were decent but not amazing. For those of you worried about food safety, they came frozen so I wasn’t worried about spoilage. Bring them home, steam them, tasty!

I’m adding the «Tamale Lady» here because she is a hard working cook who sells her wares and Bookmans has let her do it for years. At first she was outside but they let her in.
«Tamale Lady» is what I dubbed the lady, who for years, has been parked outside Bookmans (now inside, as the Bookmans folks were nice enough to let her park her cart inside) selling all types of Tamales & tortillas to people.
I buy a few when I can, they’re not bad. Good home cooking.