Tamale cart in San Jose del Cabo

On the second to last night of our stay in Cabo San Lucas we decided to take the short cab ride over to San Jose del Cabo and have dinner at restaurant called Damiana. But before we sat down for dinner my sister and I noticed a few carts in the plaza just in front of the restaurant and made a bee-line for them because we were both craving some street food after all the formal restaurants we had been going to.

There was one cart that had significantly more foot traffic than the other one so we decided to start off with that one. They had four kinds of tamales along with a variety of drinks such as horchata & jamaica. The tamale varieties included: rajas con queso (chili & cheese), carne en salsa roja (beef in red salsa), pollo en salsa verde (chicken in green salsa), and elote (corn). My sister and I started off with the rajas con queso and the beef tamales and were both thoroughly impressed. Then my friend got the pollo en salsa verde. I had low expectations since chicken, while being usually a bit healthier, is also usually lacking in the flavor deptartment and can be on the tough side if its overcooked. Surprisingly, this was super tender and the green salsa gave it some nice flavor.

All in all, they were some of the best tamales I have had. My sister, who lives in Tucson and gets plenty of authentic Mexican food, agreed that these were the best tamales she has had as well. The corn masa itself was the perfect texture and had excellent flavor. I am not sure how they made it so amazing, but I wish I could get them like that in New York City or anywhere north of the border for that matter. After enjoying a few bites of the tamale in its unaltered state I then topped all of them off with some of their homemade salsa picante to kick up the heat a bit though.

All the fillings were damn good but if I had to rank them I would put the pollo en salsa verde at the top because its rare to chicken this tender and flavorful. Usually beef or pork reigns as king since they typically have more flavor, but this was some damn good chicken. A close second would be the rajas con queso because the cheese had a nice saltiness to it and the green chili peppers gave it some nice heat that was different than their spicy salsa that was made with red chili’s. The least favorite, but still utterly delicious and better than anything else I have had anywhere else, was the carne en salsa roja. All of them were well about a dollar each.

The place doesn’t really have a name but they are in the Northeast quadrant of Plaza Mijeres in San Jose del Cabo. If you were in the restaurant Damiana, you would just walk straight out the door and you would run into it. Here is a photo of the cart so you know what to look for.