Member-only story
Tamale is another day
A tragic tale of New Year’s Eve disappointment
One of the best things to come out of the pandemic here in Bedford County is the Catch The Wave-Shelbyville Food Mob Facebook group, started to promote locally-owned restaurants, food trucks and the like.
Not every post has to do with brick-and-mortar restaurants. Someone asked about tamales the other day, and a woman posted that she was taking orders for homemade tamales, to be picked up at 1 p.m. New Year’s Eve.
I love homemade tamales. I remember one of the first times my California-born sister-in-law was with us for the holidays, she made a big batch of tamales. I live in an apartment complex with a high percentage of Latino residents, and there used to occasionally be someone selling them door-to-door, and they were great. A couple of other times, I’ve found out about someone who sold tamales; I remember meeting someone in a CVS parking lot a year or two ago to make the handoff, and I felt like a drug dealer.
Anyway, I thought that some freshly-homemade tamales sounded like a nice celebratory meal for this odd New Year’s Eve, and I quickly direct-messaged the woman and placed my order. I also messaged a friend of mine who I knew also enjoyed homemade tamales. Pickup was to be at a hair salon.
