This thread has become a complete backfired fail for the OP, and everyone with an opinion worth a damn knows that tamales are delicious and proof that a loving God exists and wants us all to be happy, warm, and well-fed...IMO.
So, for those of you around the nation who want good tamales, but don't have the knowledge, ways, or means to make them yourself, and have no access to an appropriately-chubby, grandmotherly Mexican or Tex/Mex woman who can cook her ass off, here's some suggestions, from Pristine_Condition, your oft-times surly NeoGAF buddy from Texas who wishes you
all a Merry Christmas:
www.pedrostamales.com
Pedro's Tamales - Lubbock, Texas
No orders on Fri. (sorry!)
Old school Tex/Mex tamales done right. The traditional pork are great, but the specialty of the house is their beef tamale, "sirloin in a shuck." Try the spicy beef, if you like spicy. It's yummy. Chicken is good too. Steam 'em up, sauce 'em up (if so inclined) and eat 'em up. When you steam them up, there is just the amount of grease you want to see, not too much, but never dry.
www.hotdamntamales.com
Hot Damn! Tamales - Ft. Worth, TX
These are your fancy, uptown, Dallas-Ft. Worth style "gourmet" tamales. Yeah, this means they aren't cheap (@ $18-$24/doz. they certainly aren't, but they do sell half-dozen quantities and samplers as well, so you can try different kinds.)
We're talking stuff like Wild Mushroom & Texas Goat Cheese, Ancho Pork Loin, Roasted Poblano with Fresh Corn, and Black Bean & Oaxaca Cheese tamales. Even their "regular" beef tamale is really a slow simmered beef tenderloin cooked with Negro Modello beer and fresh glazed onions, garlic, and Jalapeños.
Vegetarians take note, they've got you covered too. They don't use lard in their tamales either.
Both these places are Texas tamales joints, meaning, as far as the "stuffing"-to-masa ratio goes, there's more "stuffing" and a thinner masa shell than you get on a street corner in Mexico. Also, these are steamed in corn husks, not banana leaves. So keep that in mind.
I hope everyone (minus the haters, who are simply disgraceful) enjoys a tamale at least once this holiday season. I traditionally have mine as soon as my friends and I roll out of bed, hungover from New Year's Eve, usually with no sauce, just a little side of pico de gallo, and maybe a dab of sour cream on some shredded green stuff, along with Barbacoa tacos and Big Red soda.
Merry Christmas, tamales lovers (and haters too!)