Originally Posted by
deubster
This caused me to recall my distant childhood, when tamales were something that came out of a can, and pizza was a box from Chef Boyardee containing a mix for crust (just add water), a can of sauce, and a packet of grated parmesan - and we loved it.
Even in the 50s, there was an adequate "Tortilleria" a few blocks away, providing scratch made tamales along with tortillas de mais (corn) and de harina (flour, back then mostly Christmas & holiday food), so we were spared canned tamales, the most ghastly examples of which were from Hormel and Austex, wrapped in paper instead of corn shucks, put up in vaguely chili gravy.
I'll admit that good pizza came late, first as an appetizer at Houston's old Valian's near S. Main & OST in the 50s, and not really frequently encountered before my first visits to italy and the Winter 0f '62-'63 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.