Video: A delicious sound above the din of Mexico City

The sound of street-sellers peddling their wares is a constant in Mexico City, and none more so than the seller of tamales – a traditional, Mexican corncake.

I managed to catch one of my local tamale-sellers on camera.

This video was made to accompany this Dispatch, written by Ken Ellingwood for the Los Angeles Times.

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!”