In Arlington, one bakery will sell 14,000 dozen tamales this season. Try it at lunch
Foodies debate which to serve at Christmas: honey-glazed ham, roast beef or turkey and dressing.
But in Texas, there is no debate what to serve alongside: tamales.
The best come from some little neighborhood corner shop. But if you need a big order or can’t find a tamaleria nearby, Márquez Bakery & Tortilla Factory, 1730 E. Division St. in Arlington, is among shops still taking orders.
For 50 years, first in San Angelo and Odessa and since 1990 in Arlington, the Márquez family has cranked out tamales, tortillas, chips and pan dulce daily for grocery stores and restaurants across Texas.
This month, Márquez will sell about 14,000 dozen tamales. or more than 500 dozen per day.
But not everybody knows that Márquez also serves breakfast and lunch daily with fresh pork tamales and tortillas, platters and the day’s baked goods, along with several flavors of tres leches cake and flan.
It’s a simple, fresh, inexpensive cafe for breakfast and lunch.
The tamales are $10.99 per dozen, cheaper than most restaurants and even cheaper than in some grocery stores.
They’re small, soft and pillowy, not the big log-like tamales like others serve. They’re a good holiday side dish along with Márquez’s red or green pozole.
There’s also a family meal ($36.99) with two dozen tamales, rice, beans and salsa, perfect for Christmas Eve or morning. Add a medium side of pico de gallo for $2.99.
At daily lunch, a combination plate ($9.50) includes a tamal, an enchilada and also a choice of tacos. Fajitas cost $10.50 — $11.85 with guacamole — and the enchiladas, tacos or quesadilla platters cost $8.50.
Again, this is basic food served in mild sauces, more like something from a family kitchen than from a big Tex-Mex restaurant.
If you want to spice it up, Márquez is ready with big squeeze bottles of both red and green salsas.
Márquez also serves a pork asado platter in guajillo, carne guisada and barbacoa, with menudo and pozole on weekends.
Breakfasts range from burritos ($2.25) to migas, huevos rancheros, huevos con chorizo and other familiar plates.
Long before the Dallas Cowboys moved to Arlington, Márquez was a landmark for baseball fans on East Division Street at Ballpark Way near Candlelite Inn and Bodacious Bar-B-Q.
Now, Márquez draws football fans and concertgoers from AT&T, including a September breakfast visit from the Mexican supergroup Los Bukis.
It’s open for breakfast and lunch daily; 817-265-8858, marquezbakery.com.
(If you want to check out other tamales, try Cardona Foods, open for lunch weekdays at 850 Meacham Blvd. west of Interstate 35W; Esperanza’s Restaurant and Bakery at two locations in Fort Worth; any Pulido’s restaurant; Rodriguez Foods in Fort Worth, which sells excellent beef tamales through Braum’s; and Tommy Tamale in Keller and Grapevine, which is so overwhelmed that it sells by walk-in only.)
This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
