Boston, MATamales

Tu y Yo is a Mexican restaurant just off Ball Square in Somerville with a varied menu of appetizers, entrees, soups and salads, and the tamales are where a meal here starts. The traditional tamales arrive as an array of five corn dough mini bundles, among them a subtly spicy pork wrapped in sweet masa dough and a sweet coconut tamale. Order the traditional tamales to start.

Mr. Tamole is a stand at the Boston Public Market run by Andres Medina Carreto and his mother, Margarita Carreto, a family from Puebla who began selling their tamales at farmers' markets because Boston had so few of them. The tamales share the counter with tortas and the family's mole poblano, made from a recipe of 22 ingredients handed down from grandmother to mother. Order the tamales with a side of the mole.

Villa Mexico Cafe is a Financial District kitchen whose founder, Julie King, known to regulars as Momma King, built a cult following for her tamales, flautas and grilled burritos when she cooked out of a Beacon Hill gas station. Devotees still come to the Water Street counter for her griddled burritos and tamales. Order the tamales, and try the house black salsa.

Panaderia Rincon Guatemalteco is a small Guatemalan bakery and grocery in Waltham, the heart of Greater Boston's Guatemalan community, run by Mónica Solares, whose tamales the area's Central American community recommends. Warm pork and chicken tamales sit beside molletes and torrejas, and the shelves carry Guatemalan fried beans, cheese, cocoa and coffee. Her tamales are part of every September 15 Independence Day celebration. Order a chicken tamale with a mollete and a cup of Guatemalan black coffee.