Why can't I find any fast food tamales?

[El Supremo]

I'm so sick of Taco Bell and the others.

You don't have to make them with lard.

They are great just in the husks. Don't "smother" them like a burrito.

[Xipe Totec]

1. There is such a thing...

https://www.google.com/search?q=delias+tamales

[El Supremo]

2. That doesn't look like a fast food joint.

I'm talking about tamales you used to be able to get from street vendors but in a fast food place.

[Xipe Totec]

3. A dozen tamales for $8.00 in 30 seconds. That's pretty fast food in my book. nt

[El Supremo]

4. But I'd have to move back to Texas!

[Xipe Totec]

6. They ship...

[pinboy3niner]

5. Or chiles rellenos

If they were made with a crispy batter instead of the puffy, soggy one you get in restaurants, they'd sell like hotcakes.

[El Supremo]

7. They'd sell like hot tamales!

[hunter]

8. You live in the wrong place?

Every street vendor, truck, or small restaurant has them ready-to-go in my city.

I've been eating many these past few days (home-made by family).

They freeze well if you make them yourself. Then you can just pop them in the microwave.

[kwassa]

9. Mexican food trucks.

Yelp ranks the best Mexican food in the area as the food trucks sitting outside the Department of Motor Vehicles.

and they have lots of competition.

Suburban Maryland, not Los Angeles, my previous residence.

[begin_within]

10. For a while, the El Pollo Loco fast food chain had them.

Not as good as homemade, but available fast. I don't know if they are still selling them or not.

[El Supremo]

14. Nope.

And I don't live in CA, AZ, UT, NV or TX.

We used to have that artery clogging chain, Pancho's All You Can Eat Mexican Buffet, which had them. But they were not really fast food.

[Kali]

11. because they can't be made fast

the only way it would work is with frozen and then microwaved (which is fine, actually)

the best are homemade, the next best are sold discretely in parking lots, or door to door if you are lucky enough to live in a neighborhood where that happens

[El Supremo]

12. Why can't they be refrigerated after cooking?

And is microwaving the only quick way to heat them up? Gawd knows that Taco Bell microwaves those gawd-awful quesadillas and whatever.

[Kali]

17. they can, but that isn't the problem

they are labor intensive and take quite a while to cook

of course you can refrigerate, but freezing actually stores them better and they taste fresher when you warm them back up

they aren't like a taco or burrito that you slap together in an assembly line, wrap and toss in a bag

[haele]

13. Look up "Tamale Carts" in your town. Probably are a few outside convenience stores or small grocers

Either that or a straight-up authentic mexican drive-throughs or central american resturant might have some on their menus. Of course, you have to live in an area where there will be the grannies and aunties making tamales as a tertiary income to the family.

Haele

[GoCubsGo]

15. Because you don't live in Chicago.

You can get yummy, little spicy tamales at most hot dog stands there. They are wrapped in paper, rather than husks.

[UTUSN]

16. Recipes can be modified: Instead of lard, olive oil. I did this with my dear mother/grandmother's

recipes (modify).

[R B Garr]

18. Funny you bring this up. I just saw some in a gas station quickie mart

that has a Mexican fast food restaurant counter in there, too. The tamales were in a crockpot type warmer, and I wondered the same thing you posted as I was walking by them -- that you really don't see tamales like that and I thought it would be nice if they were more readily available. I even stopped to look under the crockpot lid because it was unusual to see them, and they were wrapped in that restaurant type foil.

Edit: the Mexican fast food restaurant is called Sombreros. It's in the San Diego area, but you said you didn't live in CA. I don't know whether the tamales in the quickie mart came from Sombreros or not. It was probably just a fluke that the tamales were there.