The León family has been making tamales for decades, and at their south Tucson Perfecto's Mexican Restaurant, 5404 S. 12th Ave. (8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily; 889-5651).
Those tamales anchor a menu that includes dishes that patriarch and restaurant namesake, Perfecto, has been preparing most of his life. Perfecto spent decades cooking in his native Nogales, Sonora, before moving the family to the U.S. in the 1990s.
The house specialty: Green corn tamales. A colleague described them as light and fluffly, with a hint of sweet balanced out by a slight bitter that enhances every nuance of the fresh corn.
Diners pack the restaurant on Sundays when Perfecto's puts those tamales on its Sunday buffet table. The buffet is served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays.
