Tamales and Sidral

Having gotten out of work early today, I stopped at a tortilleria on West 9th St. in Bradenton. I've passed the place every day on my way back from the Herald, but never made it in. The place looks like a regular Mexican grocery: boxes of limes, papayas, fresh and dried chiles, as well as a refrigerator full of sodas in glass bottles. The store also had a glass case full of ornate-looking cakes, as well as trays of more ordinary looking breads and pastries. The only light in the store seemed to come from its front door and a large red heating lamp that beamed down on bundles of tamales and wrapped platters of roasted chickens. Sitting beside the plexiglass warmer was a young lady wrapping stacks of tortillas in sheets of wax paper. Only when I approached the counter to ask about the tamales did I notice a low window that connected the store to a kitchen. The tortillas were fed through this window on a rotating wire rack. The girl plucked them off the rack, stacked them and wrapped them. I grabbed a bottle of Sidral (apple soda) and asked for an order of the pork tamales. For just over five bucks I got half a dozen tamales and a soda. Not a bad lunch. I'll definitely go back for the tortillas, and maybe a roast chicken.