🫔 The best tamales in metro Phoenix

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Fri Dec 13 2024

Kara Edgerson | Manager of Digital Operations

Hey readers,

A few months back we spoke with Endia Fontanez, the food and dining reporter for The Arizona Republic, about our 2024 Top Taco contest and winner.

Now we are back with Top Taco with a twist.

Stay with me here.

What’s one thing that signals Christmastime in Arizona? Tamales. And the popular dish from Mexico and Latin America is made at several establishments across the Valley. So what better way to host a reader’s choice contest during the holidays?

This week, we spoke with La Voz reporter Paula Soria about the 2024 Top Tamale contest and winner. Here’s what she had to say.

🫔 Top Tamale 2024: Meet the business owners who make the best tamales in metro Phoenix

‘Latin food is such a hit in the Valley’

Top Tamale is Top Taco with a little twist. The tamale is a traditional and popular dish from Mexico and Latin America and the Valley is home to several establishments where this dish is served. What inspired this new reader’s choice contest?

When my editor Joa Jacobo came up to me with this assignment, she explained that this initiative was inspired by the great work azdining has been doing with their reader’s choice food contests such as our beloved Top Taco. Latin food is such a hit in the Valley and let’s not forget to mention that Latinos make up about 43% of Phoenix’s population.

Tamales are without a doubt one of the most worldwide know Mexican dishes along with the taco and especially during this time of year, they are such a staple in every Hispanic family’s holiday dinner table. A lot of people might ask, “Why the holidays?” and to that I say the answer goes beyond the fact that tamales are a Mexican traditional dish; tamales are a symbol of history, tradition and love among our families. Every holiday season it is common for Hispanics to gather with their loved ones to prepare tamales, an event known as “tamalada” during which chatter, laughter and creation of indelible memories are never left out. Therefore, with the holidays right around the corner, we thought it was the perfect timing for La Voz, our bilingual desk at azcentral, to host such a contest for the first time, and what a better dish to start with than tamales.

‘Second round of voting left us speechless’

After three intensive weeks of voting, about 50 businesses were nominated for Top Tamale. Among the five finalists were The Tamale Store, Sazón Sinaloense, La Güera Hispanic Food, Old El Paso Tamales and Fire and Braids. Did this list surprise our team? Do you think a local favorite was left out?

The Tamale Store has become such a popular spot in the Valley well-known for the variety of tamales on their menu. From the moment nominations began and them (The Tamale Store) concluding with the most amount of voting in that first phase of the contest, we truly believed that this business had one of the highest probabilities of being crowned as our Top Tamale 2024. However, the second round of voting left us speechless, starting with the fact that we saw an exponential increase in voter participation from 175 votes to nearly 12,000. And the next shocker was seeing our absolute winner, Fire and Braids, being one of the finalists with the least number of votes during the nomination round and topping off the contest by taking over 60% of the final votes.

Personally, I think that when it came to nominations and narrowing it down to our five finalists, no one was left out; we received submissions of businesses that varied from local restaurants to food trucks and home-based businesses that operate by opening orders on a weekly basis. Said dynamic was reflected in our five finalists: The Tamale Store being a local restaurant, Sazón Sinaloense a food truck, La Güera Hispanic Food a home-operated business that takes orders from clients every Saturday, Old El Paso Tamales another restaurant and Fire and Braids another food truck.

‘A very inspiring story’

The contest racked up nearly 12,000 votes in our final voting round and we have a winner. Fire and Braids is the overall winner, with just over 60% of the votes. You spoke to owner Brenda Mercado Valdez who is “proud to be able to share my heritage through my tamales.” Tell us more about her initial reaction when you contacted her? What does this win mean to her and her business?

Brenda has a very inspiring story that people will be able to read in her upcoming featured article. She has undergone not just physical health but mental health issues since 2012 and to her, the kitchen was the “sanctuary” that saved and helped her heal from it all ever since she began her catering business Dish is Da Bomb in 2022 and later transitioned to the operation of her food truck Fire and Braids in 2023.

Brenda said that as a small business that started operations recently, knowing that over 7,000 people believe that your tamales are the BEST ones across an entire city where the dish is quite popular and sold by many more individuals –each of them with their unique “sazón” (flavoring/seasoning) – is simply a dream come true. “I am still pinching myself,” Brenda said to me repeatedly during the conversation we had two days after the announcement of Fire and Braids’ win. Brenda’s tamales recipe is not just hers; this recipe symbolizes a legacy of so many women that go from her grandmother to her mother and mother-in-law as well as her aunts. It is exactly because of that reason that the meaning of this recognition and her gratitude multiplies by a hundred – because it honors her beloved “guerreras” (female warriors), as she calls them.

Meet the winners of Top Tamale 2024

After nearly 12,000 votes were submitted, we have a winner and two runners up of the Top Tamale 2024 readers’ choice contest.

READ MORE

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🫔 The best tamales in metro Phoenix

🫔 The best tamales in metro Phoenix

Your Week with AZCentral

Kara Edgerson | Manager of Digital Operations

‘Latin food is such a hit in the Valley’

‘Second round of voting left us speechless’

‘A very inspiring story’

Meet the winners of Top Tamale 2024

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Like this:

🫔 The best tamales in metro Phoenix

🫔 The best tamales in metro Phoenix

Your Week with AZCentral

Kara Edgerson | Manager of Digital Operations

‘Latin food is such a hit in the Valley’

‘Second round of voting left us speechless’

‘A very inspiring story’

Meet the winners of Top Tamale 2024

Why Arizona’s tallest building is empty

Elon and Vivek are coming for your Social Security

Families jolted by insurer’s split with Phoenix hospital

An Arizona man seeks clemency from Biden. Here’s why

Trump was Trump on ‘Meet the Press’ | Opinion

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