The owner of this longtime Harlem street cart sets up shop near the entrance of the 145th Street subway station around 7 a.m. most mornings, selling tamales stuffed with black beans, red and green mole, chicken, and cheese until they’re sold out. A standard tamal costs about $3 here, while a plump Oaxaqueño, with chicken or pork, is a dollar more.

A short distance from the Bronx’s Hunts Point market, owner Israel Veliz has been making savory and sweet tamales with a variety of toppings since 2016. His recipe comes from his mother, who moved to the Bronx from the Mexican state of Puebla and incorporates a little bit of baking soda for hefty but delicate tamales priced around $4 each. Try the simple rajas version, made with epazote, jalapeno, tomato, and onion.

This bright orange restaurant in East Harlem makes flautas and picaditas, but those aren’t the dishes that gave Tamales Lupita its name. Served with a side of chipotle dipping sauce, the chicken and cheese tamales here combine two regional recipes, says co-owner Catalina Jacinto, whose mother and father come from the Mexican states of Guerrero and Puebla, respectively.

This companion taqueria to its market two blocks down offers tamales all day. But since they’re not on the menu, you’ll have to ask. A spicy green chicken or the red pork versions are exceptionally large for $3 a piece.

This Oaxacan sit-down spot in Jersey City Heights has an extensive breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu and tamales year-round, including verdes, rojos, mole, and chileajo, each for $2.75. If you’re not there by 10 a.m., chances are they’ll be sold out, a server confirms.

This small storefront on the Lower East Side churns out tamales in a half-dozen fashions, most priced around $5. Proprietor Fernando Lopez is one of a handful of tamal makers in the city to nixtamalize his corn, whereby kernels are soaked in food-grade calcium hydroxide for hours before being milled into masa. The painstaking process is the reason for the rightly popular tamales here, filled with chipotle chicken and a mole poblano that claims to be made with at least 20 different ingredients.

Diana and Zack Wangeman, the owners of Bushwick tortilleria Sobre Masa, serve extremely delicious costras — tortillas blanketed in large, leathery sheathes of cooked Oaxacan cheese. But get to the restaurant before 3 p.m., and some truly excellent tamales await. Husks of masa stuffed with pork in salsa verde and creamy poblano pepper start at $8 each. They’re the most expensive on this list by a few dollars, but they’re also quite large: For Eater’s chief critic Ryan Sutton, a single tamal here is a proper lunch in itself.

In a corner of Bushwick better known for its Dominican restaurants, this Mexican restaurant sells corn husk tamales and Oaxaqueños filled with mole and red and green salsas. Tamales stuffed with pork aren’t as common at street carts in New York — chicken, cheese, and poblano pepper seem to reign supreme — but at La Mesita they’re the reason for coming. For about $4 each, these dense tamales come packed with stringy and deeply flavorful meat.

This tamales spot near Prospect Park has leveled up considerably during the pandemic, from a makeshift stand sheltered by an umbrella to a semi-enclosed cart: shelves lined with empanadas, churros, flan, and tres leches. Expect tamales in the usual styles, along with púlakles, a vegan tamal from Veracruz that’s stuffed with green bean, zucchini, black bean, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and more. The cart sets up shop at the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue around 1 p.m. on Sundays, and earlier on Saturdays.

It’s understood that some of the best Mexican food in the city is only available on weekends, as these tamales from Reyes Deli & Grocery go to show. The bodega on the edge of Park Slope and Gowanus sells burritos, breakfast tacos, and barbacoa by the pound — all are great, but for some of the city’s top tamales, show up early on a Saturday or Sunday. Rajas, chicken mole, and pork tamales start at around $3 each.