By Greg B.  I am fortunate enough to have developed my tastes to the point where I can appreciate excellent Mexican food.  Now, there are many different kinds of Mexican dishes, and there is not time or space in this one post to cover them all, but I should devote this one to the Tamal.  I am also fortunate enough to live close to Michelle’s Cafe and within easy access to great food.

I first wandered into Michelle’s with my father a few years ago, looking for some quick Mexican food.  After our cross country motorcycle trip, where we basically sampled tamales, chile rellenos and other Mexican dishes throughout the American West, we have been in a perpetual search for good Mexican.  Randomly walking into Michelle’s and seeing the tamal menu, we knew we had found the right place.

A tamal is a traditional Mexican dish that takes a LOT of time to prepare.  I have made them before by hand and it really takes hours of preparation and cooking time.  You essentially mix masa, or a corn meal with water and lard (yes, lard.  there is not making a good tamal without this, so don’t even try to skimp on the fat), make a paste, line the inside of a dried corn husk with this, fill it with whatever you want, usually pork and some sauce, then roll the husk up, tie it off and steam cook it for a few hours.  These are really absolutely delicious dishes and I cannot get enough of them!  I should also take this time to mention that I really love Mexican food, and I try to limit myself to it maybe twice a month.  Any more, and I risk offsetting a delicate balance and I trend towards addiction to it.  This month, I’ve been teetering on the edge.  I tried Mexican food at Carolina’s in Fells point earlier, and then this past weekend was a party.  At this party was a friend of mine whom I had not seen in a while, Paulina, who makes some of the best mole I can find, outside of small restaurants in the American south west (and, I assume, Mexico, but I have not sampled enough restaurants in Mexico to make this conclusion….. not yet!).  She had prepared Mole with pork as a dish, and it was fantastic.  Thus, my fond love of Mexican food re-kindled, I had to stop by Michelle’s on my way home.

Now, I got my dinner from Michelle’s tonight, and usually I just get a bunch of tamales to go, but tonight I felt extra hungry and also got a quesadilla with chorizo.  This was excellent, came with a salad and some sauce that was just the perfect amount of heat to go with the chorizo and cheese…mmmm mmm!  I have had a torta from here before as well, and it too was exceptional (though I will admit, tortas are not my area of expertise with Mexican food, I have only eaten about 5 in my lifetime).  The tamales were fantastic, I got two oaxaquenno which have chicken, a sauce and are wrapped not in corn husks but in banana leaves.  These are delicious and hardly need any extra heat, though I do usually add some extra hot sauce to the mix.  The jalapenos tamales normally do not need this though, they are pretty good right from the steamer!

Michelle’s also sells some various Mexican drinks, like tamarind soda and they have desserts and snacks from Mexico as well.  It is not a very large space to eat in, but it is well worth it to stop in one day and buy some tamales.  $8 minimum for credit card purchases, open 6:30am till 7pm Monday through Saturday, 8am-3pm Sunday, these folks are pumping out the tamales as fast as they can make them.  And I suggest you go drop in and see why makes them so good!