Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe

So, we finally made a trip down to West 7th Street to try Mama's Hot Tamales cafe a few weeks ago after seeing some good reviews about it. We love fresh tamales(that are prepared correctly) and we ordered several different tamales as well as an Inca Kola(from Peru) for me.

The tamales ordered were:

Oaxacan Chicken tamale(which is made with black mole sauce)



Honduran, which is made with potatoes, olives, raisins and rice.


Sweet corn tamale(not pictured).

Inca Kola


I hardly ever drink soda, but hey, it was from Peru, so I had to try it. The soda arrived first and well...it was bubblicious since it tasted much like bubblegum.

Soon after, the tamales arrived and we started tasting. The Oaxacan was by far our favorite because of the flavors and texture. The tamale was firm, but still moist from being just steamed in the kitchen and the chicken was moist and not dry at all. I really love the subtleties of mole. The blend of all of the different chiles, spices, Mexican chocolate, etc really work well to balance each other.

The Honduran tamale was also tasty, but the texture was almost mush. I really didn't mind at all because I know all of that moisture probably had to do with the potatoes, olives and rice together. If the potatoes and rice were just steamed or boiled that morning, all of the moisture would be retained.

The sweet corn tamale was good as well. Nothing but sweet corn and masa in this one. The texture was very soft.We've never had one before. It was different.
We like spicy food, but we didn't add too much hot sauce because we wanted to let the ingredients shine through.

All in all, a good lunch and we'll be looking for other tamales around the LA area very soon.

-W

Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe
2122 West Seventh Street
Los Angeles, CA 90057