Tamales on Royal Street

This piece on the home page made me laugh thinkiing about my tamale experience in New Orleans. I was 10, and my mother and I were visiting my uncle and aunt while he was stationed at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. We went to New Orleans for a weekend (my first visit to Antoine's). Anyway, one evening my mother and I went to see a movie (for those who keep track of such things it was Duffy's Tavern [Where The Elite Meet To Eat] with Ed Gardner). The movie theater was on Canal Street. And when we came out after watching the movie there was a guiy with a pushcart at the curb selling hot tamales. My mother finally gave in to my pleas and bought me a tamale. Excuse me, a Hot Tamale. I remember only that it was interesting and I liked it, but I don't remember whether it was really good or bad in terms of tamales I've had since. It was, though, my first, and I've never forgotten it. Obviously.