A delicious sound above the din of Mexico City

Video by Deborah Bonello.

Ken Ellingwood reports:

You hear it from a block away: an amplified, singsong call with an uncanny power to slice through the urban din. The tone is cheap and tinny -- as kitschy as a sound can be.

And it's my favorite in Mexico City.

Listen now, as it nears, the nasal-toned male voice stretching out syllables and pauses, again and again, into a verse so familiar it could be the unofficial anthem of this vast city, a kind of culinary call to prayer. "Ri-costa-ma-les oaxa-que-ños!" blares a loudspeaker on the vendor's tamale cart. "Tamales oaxaqueños!" "Tamales calien-ti-tos!"

Go to any neighborhood in Mexico City, from gritty to grand, and at some point during the evening you might hear it. The recorded call, always in the same hypnotic voice, is pumped from countless speakers aboard countless tamalero pedal carts. Step up and order your delicious Oaxacan tamales.

Read more of "A delicious sound above the din of Mexico City" here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Comments

[Lex from Holland]

yes, and the sound isn't only delicious, so are the tamales!
(I live in Zona Rosa)

[LEE RIVAS]

How can you describe that God-awful ear-jarring cacophany as "...a delicious sound above the din of Mexico City"? I thought taco trucks were bad.

This is so reminicent of the old American rag men who plied their trade yelling "rags"!!!! in our neighborhoods. How would you have described that?

Color me NIMBY.

[Angela]

Love this!!!!!!!!