Critic's Choice: A holiday hankering for tamales

For a lot of Angelenos, the holidays bring a craving for tamales — fat, corn-husk-wrapped packets of tender steamed masa filled with gooey melted cheese or shredded fall-apart pork or chocolatey chicken mole. This time of year, places such as Liliana's in Boyle Heights or Tamara's in Marina del Rey are swamped with orders. Luckily, L.A.'s a world of tamales: the Michoacan uchepo and Belizean ducunu, or even a Puerto Rican pasteles (which isn't made with masa but with plantains steamed in banana leaf).... Here are some of the places at which to get a quick fix, from recent "The Find" columns.

December 22, 2011