Somerton hosts 15th Annual Tamale Festival
Wide variety of tamales highlight event
SOMERTON, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Nearly 30,000 eager tamale eaters showed up from day to night, ready to indulge in standard beef tamales to chocolate
The 15th Annual Tamale Festival event started on Saturday, December 17 at 11:00am and will end at 10:00pm.
Vendors also pitched their stands down Main Street to take part in the yearly tradition, ready to catch the eye of hungry locals.
"We actually have the unique tamales chocolate, strawberry chocolate, and keto," said Lucia Arellano.
Exotic tamales
In addition, exotic tamales took center stage.
It was difficult to top the creativity and passion of the tamales made specially by a 10-year festival participant.
"Our tamales are wrapped in banana leaf...so, they're made with traditional pork mole or beef mole. We also have chicken and green chili," said Liz Rubio.
Tamale made for everyone
Overall, there was a sweet, spicy, or salty tamale for everyone.
"My favorite is the keto," said Arellano.
The tamale makers then made from scratch and sold between a half to a full dozen.
"We've done a lot of dozen orders instead of single tamales," Rubio spoke.
Judging began within the first two hours featuring awards for most unique and authentic, and many were out to defend their title.
"We actually won an award for the chocolate tamales last year," Arellano shared.
An expansive variety of Mexican delicacies were also included such as churros and street corn to go along with live entertainment and of course the tamale eating contest.
In addition to chocolate and banana peel, spicy mild and vegetarian options were also available.
