El Parasol

The Atencio family started selling tamales and tacos in 1958, and co-owner Ralph Atencio tells The New Mexican the recipe is his mother's mother's, added to the menu sometime in the sixties. The kitchen starts gearing up for Christmas in September and each location makes well over a thousand. Order them frozen and uncooked, which runs four dollars less a dozen, then steam them upright with the open end up for about an hour and let them rest twenty minutes so the masa stiffens.

Picks from The Santa Fe New Mexican and Santa Fe Reporter