Food: La Sombra Serves Up Tamales To Go For The Holidays

Holiday tamales are a Texas tradition. Spending the time to make them, though, can be challenging given all the errands, parties, and events on one's agenda. Last week, we tried samples of Peruvian tamales from Burnet Road's La Sombra, and found them to be impressive additions to Austin's holiday tamale options.

The key standouts in the La Sombra tamales were the sauces and the crunch factor. The pibil pork tamale arrived with a pleasant, warming guajillo salsa of charred tomato and peppers, which cut through the masa and brought the smoky meat flavor to the forefront of the dish. But our favorite salsa was actually the tomatillo they paired with the chicken and green chile tamales, which was both more distinctly spicy and also lighter in body. In both tamales, the chefs have added some diced nuts in the masa to provide a surprising textural crunch in some bites.

La Sombra tamales are available at $9/half-dozen and $16/dozen by calling 512-458-1100. Turnaround time is 24 hours, and there's a 3pm order cutoff for the following day. We highly recommend them.

For those further south, it would be remiss not to mention that a similar setup is in place at 78704 stalwart Curra's Grill on Oltorf at $18-24/dozen depending on flavor. Click here for more info.

Note: La Sombra's tamales were provided as a press sample.