drop the tamale or else

[guncrasher]

this news made me laugh.  450 pork tamales were seized at the los angeles airport.  they were all destroyed.

http://news.yahoo.com/450-illegal-pork-tamales-seized-los-angeles-airport-174316789.html

xmas is ruined for many people now 

just curious as to why somebody would want to smuggle in tamales.

semp

[bustr]

Long time ago I worked on a job where some guys were talking about a coworker who would visit Mexico and bring back food from the home village of home sick illegals who worked with him on the job. Never as much as this bust. Wonder if this passenger thought he could make a good profit on homesick people? Bet pork raised in Mexico is leaner with a different taste than American pork.

[eagl]

A *really* good tamale is, well, different than a regular tamale.  I don't know why and don't know how to make either good or bad tamales, but I've tasted a handful of *really* good tamales and they're worth seeking out.  Not sure if that has anything to do with someone smuggling a few hundred tamales through an airport, but maybe they had a reason or were just trying to do someone a favor.

On the other hand, I'm not sure why we are regulating tamale importation.  Were they properly packaged for individual retail sale?  If not, maybe they were for a party.  Why does there have to be a regulation for that, if they're not going to end up for sale to an unsuspecting public?

[BaldEagl]

I'm not sure why we are regulating tamale importation.  Were they properly packaged for individual retail sale?  If not, maybe they were for a party.  Why does there have to be a regulation for that, if they're not going to end up for sale to an unsuspecting public?

The search by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents turned up 450 pork tamales individually packaged in plastic bags.

"Although tamales are a popular holiday tradition, foreign meat products can carry serious animal diseases," said Anne Maricich, CBP acting director of field operations in Los Angeles.

[Ripsnort]

A *really* good tamale is, well, different than a regular tamale.  I don't know why and don't know how to make either good or bad tamales, but I've tasted a handful of *really* good tamales and they're worth seeking out. 

My Mexican girl friend back in the 80's...THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID! And she found me.

[Devil 505]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D_IjYntlXY

[CptTrips]

(Preface, no one in my family is Hispanic "not that there is anything wrong with that")

My mom makes the best tamales I've ever had.  And I'm not that in to tamales.  She makes AWESOME TexMex enchiladas too. I love those!! (Better)
But the rest of my family loves the tamales so she, my sister, and my aunt, make a (couple of) pitchers of margaritas and have a tamale making fest.  Apparently its a LOT of manual labor so they only do it for Christmas and give them out to everyone because I guess they freeze well.

Last year though, because being in the Tech industry I have developed a taste for Indian food, she made Indian spiced tamales with a Tika Masala type sauce. Those were Fekin AWESOME.  Now I have all these red-necked relatives in Oddesa Texas Jones'n for some more Indi-Pak-Mexican tomales.  How weird is that?

Wab

[Dark]

Yes tamales are a very labor and time intense thing to make. I would help my Tia make them and the amount of work was astounding. Most do it around the holidays because its actually easier to make a big batch then smaller ones. And searching for a good one is worth the time. 

[guncrasher]

I normally just buy one.  then try it and if it is good then I'll buy a dozen or so.  but I only like the pork with red chilli.

just be aware even if you go back to the same place, always just buy one the next time and if it is good then buy more.

I would make them but it just takes way too many hours.


semp

[rpm]

Reminds me of the Thanksgiving episode of King of the Hill where airport security detonates Hank's smoked turkey as a suspicious package after the sniffing dog alerts to it.