I know of a guy in the LA area who is often referred to simply as "the tamale guy." He heads out with freshly prepared tamales every morning, cruising by the spots where his loyal customers are waiting to grab one for breakfast and maybe another couple for lunch. They're so good that I've spotted him hanging outside the back of well-known Mexican restaurants, chatting with the chefs, who are invariably eating one of his tamales instead of they ones they're making inside. Now, you might not get results as impressive as the tamale guy's tamales, but everyone has to start somewhere and Tamales 101: A Beginner's Guide to Making Traditional Tamales can provide a good basis in technique to get you off on the right foot. The book walks you through the process of making tamales, including working with masa and learning how to wrap the corn husks properly, and provides plenty of recipes for sauces and fillings. Some of the combinations are traditional, while variations like Greek and Vegetable Curry tamales will keep you coming back to the book even on days when you don't feel like eating Mexican food.

Tyler and Amanda love to eat and love to share their interest in all things edible through their blog, What We're Eating. As it turns out, they eat a lot of good stuff and take some really outstanding photos of all of it. They also present their posts in a very unusual (for a food blog) dialogue format that is a lot of fun to read. This is a picture of some Pork Tamales that they had down in Rosarito, Mexico. They declared the tamales to be the best they'd ever had - and judging by the picture, I don't doubt it. Of course, both Tyler and Amanda prefer other Mexican foods to tamales, so the tamales only got a 4.1/5 star rating. At least it wasn't the tamale's fault.