My kingdom for a tamale!

So seeing as how today was Cinco de Mayo, my wife and I decided it would be great to have tamales and chili for dinner. (Not that our highly-food-sensitive kids would go for it, but hey, they don't mind having quesadillas 3 or 4 times a week, so there you go). So, off to the store I go, in search of a can of tamales. We used to have these quite often growing up; I guess they were pretty cheap, and made for some good, hearty eatin'. Mmm, mmm, good!

Brief tangent: as a kid, I had a good friend who was Japanese, who I got to introduce to the wonder that is the canned tamale. But being from a culture where food may come wrapped in rice paper, he didn't know that you're not supposed to eat the tamale wrapper. His first impression of this crazy North American cuisine? "Tastes like paper!"

Anyway, craving tamales, I rolled into the local supermarket. But, after 15 fruitless minutes trolling the international aisle, the canned foods aisle, the chips-and-dip aisle, even the frozen food section... I was forced to admit that Giant doesn't carry canned tamales in Virginia! Curses! Calling the wife to get her opinion, we decided to punt on our plan (the kids' quesadillas were already made, and getting cold). So instead, we had taco salad and frozen chicken taquitos. Oh well, it was still tasty.

Feliz Cinco De Mayo!