Carolina Tamales

🇲🇽 SINALOA, MÉXICO / The flavors of Cosalá, in Sinaloa's highlands, have a home on Alondra Blvd. in Bellflower.

🇲🇽 MÉXICO (Sinaloa)
📍 9342 Alondra Blvd.,
Bellflower, Southeast Los Angeles
🅿️ Small lot in rear
🥤 No Alcohol

📸 All photos by Jared Cohee
for Eat the World Los Angeles

For just over two years, the bright pink words “Carolina Tamales” have announced themselves to passersby at the busy Alondra Blvd. and Clark Avenue intersection in Bellflower. If you read the smaller sign, you will be invited to try “estilo Sinaloa” and if you pick up the menu you will see even that narrowed down to the Pueblo Mágico of Cosalá.

It is always exciting to come across restaurants that offer hyper-regional dining. Since the coast of Sinaloa and cities of Mazatlán and Culiacán are already well-represented in Los Angeles, Carolina Tamales seems very special. And to add to the pleasant surprise, a comfortable shaded patio in the back offers a breezy dining room for those looking to eat here at the restaurant.

Mini mortar for chiltepin balls on each table.

It makes sense to look towards the tamales first, since those are of course the namesake dish. Right away you will see two “Sinaloa” versions on offer, one pork and one chicken, and these seem like natural first bites. These versions are wrapped in corn husks like the majority in México, but vegetables join the meat and salsa and the whole thing is full of much more moisture than usual.

Steaming pots of tamales are going all morning, so an order comes very quickly and very hot. The pork Sinaloa ($4.50, below) is just a bit larger than the average tamal, but seems packed with more ingredients and less masa. Untie the beauty and drizzle over the roasted chile salsa as desired.

As with restaurants that offer food from Culiacán, Sinaloa’s capital which lives on lower ground about 155 kilometers from Cosalá, the food focuses more on the land than the sea. While you might be tempted by tacos de marlin that show up on the menu, it is plates of chilorio ($18.95, below) that should take top billing.

This dish of slow-cooked pork that is then fried with chiles once tender is available with eggs or vegetables as shown below. Each plate comes with rice, a wedge of white cheese, and a pool of frijoles puercos, one of the most amazing foods that come from Sinaloa. Yes, that translates to pork beans, and a little bit (or a lot) should be a part of just about every bite at the restaurant.

After having one lunch at Carolina Tamales, a return visit for breakfast was immediately desired to get a plate of chilaquiles Cosalá ($18.95, below). One of four options for chilaquiles (also the normal red and green as well as chipotle), this promises a creamy and cheesy green salsa and delivers. If you have ever had camarones culichis at a purveyor of Sinaloa-style mariscos, you will have an idea of the flavors and textures that come in this special plate of chilaquiles.