I wish I could learn how to cook tamales. I could not find the "masa" though I wonder if there is a good substitute for it. What are those berries beside it? These tamales look lovely
Those are olives that are put into the tamales, not berries.
Around here we go to a Mexican market. Have a few around her but the most popular right now is a growing chain named "Cardenas Market". It's a good idea to go in a week or so before and find out what the program is. Some will want you to order the masa a few days ahead.
We order the masa and pick it the morning of Christmas Eve in order to make the tamales that day. Then we will add some chile meat sauce (mole) to the masa to give it some flavor spicing it up a bit.