In pursuit of tamales, I have lurked outside Catholic churches after Spanish Mass and chased down ladies pushing blue coolers in shopping carts along the street. Then there are the great tamales, like those at Alimentos Saludables in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She and her husband, Luis Gonzalez, immigrated to Brooklyn in 1992 and started selling tamales in front of Our Lady of Perpetual Help church, a block and a half from where Alimentos Saludables now stands. For a decade, they left the previous tenant’s sign (“Speedy’s Place”) untouched, but the neighbors knew them as Tamales Tonchita. One morning, she handed me, unbidden, a cup of champurrado, milky hot chocolate thickened with corn flour.

Source: New York Times November 17, 2016 17:42 UTC