This spot has the details down. You cringe, if only briefly, as you dip them into the thick, cilantro-spiked salsa. Meats are tender, cooked for hours on the stove. New Mexicans, however, judge tacquieras by their chili sauce, and Hot Tamale's could use a little more fire. If you dine in, prepare for a huge bowl where generous chunks of meat float like half-submerged logs.
Broths are zesty albeit a tad fatty, with the kitchen using chili powder to great advantage.
Be forewarned when ordering menudo. Good, yes, but not what I was prepared for. An Alaskana touch, chunks of beer-battered halibut come smothered in salsa and lettuce and folded in two corn tortillas. The mix sounds odd, but it is one of the quirkier and more interesting items on the menu. You have to look hard to find the misses in Tamale's lineup.