Tamales are traditionally eaten around Candelaria (February 2) to celebrate the beginning of the planting season and the coming of spring. Coyoacán’s Museo de Artes Populares presents, as it has done for the last 25 years, an extraordinary ‘feria de tamales’. Vendors from all over Mexico and beyond offer their regional variations of corn husk or banana leaf stuffed morsels. Be sure to visit the cornfest and arrive with an empty stomach. The festival will be open through February 2nd See: http://www.dondehayferia.com/feria-del-tamal-2017-en-el-mncp-coyoacan for details.

Meanwhile, 6 of the city’s best chefs have prepared creative tamales that will be on offer at their respective restaurants through mid February.

Alexis Preschez, of Mexsi Bocu successfully fuses iconic French dishes with la gastronomie Mexicaine his “tamal a la niçoise” and “tamal de soupe a l’oignon.”

Lucho Martínez from Mia Domenicca has reinvented a fish tamal from his native Veracruz, as well as a jewel-like “tamal de flores.”

Alam Méndez of Pasillo de Humo will prepare elaborate tamales based on native Oaxacan ingredients such as mole de chicatanas

Santiago Muñoz and Eric Daniel González both of Fonda Mayora stay closer to tradition,  utilizing barbacoa or sweetbreads, while Juan Cabrera, executive chef of Fonda Fina does an elaborate tamal of dried shrimp with mustard perfumed with hoja santa.