Denver, COTamales

State senator Paul Sandoval opened this Tejon Street shop in 1974 and his family still runs it. 5280 reports the kitchen stuffs tamales every morning with either vegetarian green chile and cheese or red chile and pork, and that it turns out more than fifteen thousand a day between the counter, the wholesale trade and a second outlet at Denver International's Concourse C. Order the red chile and pork by the dozen at Tejon Street, which is the original and the only one you can reach without a boarding pass.

Levi Luna and his family have run this small north Denver shop since 1997, and 5280 reports the prep and cooking take close to twenty hours yet the place still turns out thousands of tamales a day. Order the green or the red, both stuffed with tender shredded pork, singly or by the half dozen or dozen. The counter also sells Pochitos' pre-made masa if you would rather assemble your own, and ready-to-eat lunch plates with enchiladas and burritos.

A sixty-year-old bakery on Lawrence Street where the cases of cookies and sweet breads come first, most of them around $1.25, and the savoury menu sits behind them. 5280 frames the choice as the milder traditional red tamal or the spicier green pork. Order the green. Through December the bakeshop also makes sweet tamales with raisins, nuts and pineapple, which 5280 says to order early. Masa and corn husks are sold here too.

The late founder Jesus Moreno refused to put machinery anywhere near the process, and 5280 reports his wife and daughter still make the tamales by hand. Everything in the green and red pork tamales, masa and chile sauces both, is produced in house. Order them smothered rather than plain, which is the Colorado habit, with a cold agua fresca, or take a dozen home. There is a second counter on West Mississippi Avenue in Lakewood.

A tiny family tortilleria and panaderia on South Federal that 5280 describes as friendly and mostly self-serve, so you can work through the fridges and cases at your own pace. The bags of tamales chill up front in red chile, green chile, chile and cheese, and dessert versions. Order the chile and cheese, then fill out the trip with tortillas made daily, house-made chips and salsas, and a concha or two on the way out.