If you are not fortunate enough to belong to an extended Mexican or Central American family during Christmastime—when the tamalada, or tamale-making party, has long been a seasonal tradition—there are plenty of local places to source your tamales. Can you make them yourself? Of course you can. But you’re probably better off finding a local taquería to do the work for you (and likely make them better than you can.)
Tamales—those glorious packets of masa encasing richly sauced fillings, then wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves and steamed—are a long-held holiday heritage. They’re a deeply resonant dish, whose history dates back to Mesoamerican cultures circa 10,000 years ago, where they were considered sacred. Unwrap a half-dozen—hot from the steamer and redolent of nixtamalized corn, chiles, cheese, and meats—and you’ll think they’re pretty blessed, too.
When I lived in Los Angeles, Christmas meant pilgrimages to the tamaleria a few miles down the freeway, a decades-old factory behind a cozy storefront where you could order them by the dozen at the counter and then eat a few extra in the parking lot to fortify you for the drive home.
Some shops make tamales every day, while others only make them for the holidays. So pick a place nearby, and order them ahead of time if you can (tamales, by the way, freeze very well, as long as you remember to reheat them properly), especially if you’re using them as the stars of your holiday feast.
You can make an array of other things (requiring little prep) to accompany them, like extra sauces and spreads. Or you can make a giant pot of pozole, as I have on occasion, because even though that’s a bit insane, it’s considerably easier, in my mind, than making, wrapping, and steaming a giant pot of tamales.
Here are six places to find your holiday—or everyday—tamales in the area:
CARNITAS ROCIO
Highlandtown
Open since 2023 in a rowhouse conveniently across the street from the Highlandtown market, Carnitas Rocio is owned and operated by a family of longstanding restaurateurs from Léon, Guanajuato, in central Mexico. There is a giant tortilla machine in the back kitchen, a front window loaded with just-made chicharrónes, and heated pans with fantastic tamales.
The tamales are enormous, beautifully folded cornhusk envelopes bursting with masa, chicken, and salsa verde, or inundated with mole sauce made by the family’s matriarch (the best ones). The staff doesn’t speak much English, but no worries, just say you’d like some tamales and you’ll be well taken care of. It’s also worth staying for a while, as the tacos are as wonderful as the staff, and it’s a lovely place to spend some time.
CINCO DE MAYO DOS
Fells Point
In an oversized, heated, covered pan near the register of this marvelous Mexican grocery shop on Eastern Avenue, there are dozens of vertically stacked tamales, which you can take to-go or carry through to the restaurant in the back.
Past rows of hot sauces, a produce stand, a meat case, a bakery case, and aisles and aisles of pantry goods, you get to a counter, a door into a kitchen, and a bunker-like dining room with colorful tables and a Marian shrine (!). It’s really the perfect place to eat your pork and red sauce or chicken and green sauce tamales, even if you get a dozen extra to take home. (Also, they’ve got excellent quesabirria tacos.)
JALEPEÑOS MARKET
Dundalk
Some of the best tamales I’ve had since leaving L.A. were in this Dundalk grocery store. A family-owned Hispanic supermarket and cafe whose first location opened in Glen Burnie in 2003, the Dundalk spot opened in 2017—and another is set to open soon in Essex.
Jalapeños is a colorful, welcoming, extremely well-sourced place. Grocery aisles are stocked with hot sauces and bags of rice, piñatas hang from the rafters, and a remarkable produce department offers individually wrapped mangoes and fruits not normally found outside of Ecuador.
There are also, of course, extremely good tamales, distributed from a little kitchen next to a stack of giant metal and copper pots. You can order a few or enough for a feast—green chile, roasted poblano peppers, fried grasshoppers (!), sweet corn, banana-wrapped chicken, or the superb mole tamales—from the very friendly woman running the counter. Enormous and extraordinarily tender, they’re first-rate. And you can eat a few at the café before you head home with your holiday grocery haul, which should include the house tepache and/or champurrado.
MEXICAN ON THE RUN
Cockeysville
Open three days a week, the Pennsylvania Dutch Market in Cockeysville is a wonderland of wooden cabinetry, butcher’s counters, doughnut shops, sit-down restaurants, historic food items—everything from pies to marrow bones—and, in the very back, the sit-down location for the Mexican on the Run food truck.
Owner Jimmy Longoria, who grew up in Los Angeles learning to cook from his mother, opened the Cockeysville location at the start of 2023. The food is marvelous, but it’s also worth eating because you get to dine alongside bonneted, bearded, and plain-dressed Amish folks enjoying plates of tacos, which is so delightful you might just have to sit for a while to properly appreciate it.
Longoria’s tamales are only here, not at his truck, and they’re seasonal, only offered from Thanksgiving through the end of the year. Call ahead to see what they have: chicken salsa verde, chicken mole, beef salsa rosa, or chiles and cheese.
MICHELLE’S CAFE
Fells Point
Open since 2006 in an Eastern Avenue storefront, Michelle’s is a cozy dining room with a friendly counter fronting a busy kitchen. Michelle’s opens at 6 a.m., seven days a week, and it’s worth remembering that they can sell out of tamales by lunchtime. Housed in a super-sized warmer just behind the counter, the tamales are pulled hot and still steaming. They come in an impressive variety: chile verde, roasted poblano peppers, adobo, banana-leaf, and sweet tamales, which are a lovely variation, terrific for ending the feast.
TORTILLERIA SINALOA
Fells Point
This tortilleria just east of Broadway is dwarfed by the enormous tortilla press that occupies the exact center of the kitchen and tiny counter space, like some steampunk contraption in constant work. As befits a place that’s organized around masa, the tamales are excellent.
They come in various iterations—pork, wrapped in banana leaves; chicken; and peppers and cheese, the last two iterations in tidy cornhusk packages—all accompanied with little cups of salsa verde. A Fells institution for more than two decades, it’s a great place for an ad hoc lunch, but whether you’re there for a meal or tamales to-go, be sure to order a kilo of just-made tortillas to take home.