December comes at you quick, and everyone handles it differently. For some, it’s queuing up their favorite Christmas/Hanukkah playlists. And for others, it’s physically and emotionally preparing for the orgy of masa that is the stretch between pre-Christmas eve and el Dia de los Reyes Magos.
Consider the good people over at Glendale’s La Purisima Bakery.
Making 3,600-4,800 tamales weekly is no thing for La Purisima’s employees, but when the holidays roll around, they have to make more than 7,200/week to accommodate the extra demand. According to Cronkite News, many families in the Phoenix area choose to buy their tamales rather than make them, because we all know making tamales takes forever (as that iconic ‘Tamalada’ painting captures so perfectly.)
Since tamales are such a holiday tradition for Mexican families, someone’s gotta pick up the slack. And in this case, it’s the bakery.
But for La Purisima’s owners, who have been around for 32 years, this is fulfillment. “It gives us a lot of satisfaction to make tamales, and we make a lot of them,” says Iris Arellano.
I imagine the owners of the bakery are also like this during the holiday season:
Currently, La Purisima offers red or green chile with pork, chile with fresh corn and cheese, and sweet tamales stuffed with raisins and coconut. They hope to offer a vegan tamal in the future.
Check out La Purisima at work in the video above, and read more about them in our profile here.