Splendid Table: Where We Eat

Jane and Michael Stern drive around America looking for good food and exploring popular culture. From the hottest restaurants to the quirkiest out-of-the-way gems, here's where you'll find what are, in their opinion, the best and most interesting food spots the country has to offer.

Tucson Tamale Company, Tucson, AZ

Such fine and opulent pieces of food that one is tempted to call them artisan tamales, but they are too inexpensive and too much a part of life in the Old Pueblo to have an elitist name.

What makes it worth a stop:

A small take-out shop that is mostly take-out business, the Tucson Tamale Company also has a few tables at which customers can feast on some of the most delicious tamales in the Southwest.

First Broadcast January 16, 2010