"Tamale Capital of the World!"
Downtown, Old Town Indio, Indio, Ca
December 6 and 7, 2008

Story by Lisa Robyn Lawrence

Photos by Allen Lawrence

Tamales! Tamales! Tamales Everywhere Tamales!

The Indio Tamale Festival in Old Town Indio kicked off early December 6, 2008 for a two day run. We arrived early around 11:30 Am and the lines were already long at almost every tamale booth. Every Tamale stand, and there were quite a few, was packed with people waiting in line for their delicious tamale’s. There were literally thousands of people out for a day in the sun, to taste tamale’s, horchata, tacos, guacamole even Thai chicken on a stick not to mention Indian tacos, fry bread and churros, chocolate dipped frozen bananas and even the sweet Hawaiian shaved ice (snowcones). There were so many good things to eat it was a bit difficult to decide what I wanted, NOT! I wanted one of everything and came pretty close, as we devoured tamales, munched on churros, sipped horchata, piña colada, and then chomped a corn on a stick and sampled some sweet kettle corn. It was all delicious and we loved every bit of it.