Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

“Cedarlane Authentic Mexican Style Pulled Pork Tamales”

I was in the mood for tamales, and I saw these at Trader Joe’s (Refrigerated). These tamales are sold under their own brand (CedarLane) quoting the package “Authentic, Mexican Style Pulled Pork Tamales.” Authentic? Mexican? No way; that’s really stretching it for truth in advertising. My bar for “authentic Mexican” is high, and these don’t cut it. In NYC we have a decently large Mexican population. Not as large as California of course but we NY’ers are lucky in that we can get good (authentic) Mexican food. have eaten homemade tamales made by women selling them out of a cooler, and most were all terrific. I’ve also gotten tamales from street trucks, ditto. Not to mention in Mexico. So I know a good tamale when I see it and these Cedarlane tamales are not those. These are Blancos factory versions of tamales and get a “Meh”! Edible maybe but nothing to write about. I found them barely seasoned, though they list three kinds of chiles I couldn’t really taste them. These are dumbed down tamales. The filling inside here is a mush of meat and sauce, no chunks of pulled pork as I was expecting. The masa layer is a bit too thin for my tastes. Tamales are all about the corn and the Masa layer as much as the filling. Finally of course these CederLane tamales are made with canola oil – not lard which is “authentic”. OK I know the word lard doesn’t sound appetizing to you but lard is authentic Mexican and it makes for good masa. So while we didn’t hate these, and we ate them and kind of enjoyed them with adding some good salsa, we just didnt find them at all authentic Mexican. So I might not buy these again. I may search out other Trader Joe’s frozen tamales I’ve seen there and check if those are any better.

These are $6.99 (1.75 per tamale)