The New York Times
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Not far from the Rio Grande, this state’s border with Mexico, a tall barrier of thick steel slats rises over an open field. As you drive northwest along Southmost Boulevard, the terrain remains mostly vacant, dotted sparingly with houses.
Suddenly the air starts to smell of smoke and cumin. The buildings ahead are awash in bright yellows and reds, with signs advertising barbacoa and flautas. The boulevard becomes a string of restaurants, one on practically every block for the next few miles.
Border towns have long labored under bad reputations, which have only worsened in recent years as the Trump administration denounces these communities as violent, dangerous and depressed. But those labels overlook Brownsville's successes, including one of the city’s biggest points of pride: its tacos.
Along Southmost — the name of both the street and the neighborhood — you’ll find some of the best in America, both in variety and quality. This stretch of road has played host to many taco purveyors since the area was developed after World War II. As the competition has ramped up and the taco-eating public has grown more discerning, the collection has been winnowed down to a superlative 20 or so restaurants and stands.
“Some of the greatest and most important taco places in the country are in Brownsville,” said José R. Ralat, taco editor (yes, taco editor) at Texas Monthly and the author of the forthcoming book "American Tacos: A History and Guide."
Mr. Ralat said that while there are many superb places to eat tacos along the border, Brownsville is remarkable for both the number of its taco vendors and their excellence. “It is just one hot spot, but it really is a bright hot spot.”
On Thursday, the James Beard Foundation endorsed that view by naming a Brownsville restaurant, Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que, one of six recipients of its 2020 America’s Classics Award, “given to locally owned restaurants that have timeless appeal and are beloved regionally for quality food that reflects the character of its community.”
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Not far from the Rio Grande, this state’s border with Mexico, a tall barrier of thick steel slats rises over an open field. As you drive northwest along Southmost Boulevard, the terrain remains mostly vacant, dotted sparingly with houses.
Suddenly the air starts to smell of smoke and cumin. The buildings ahead are awash in bright yellows and reds, with signs advertising barbacoa and flautas. The boulevard becomes a string of restaurants, one on practically every block for the next few miles.
Along Southmost — the name of both the street and the neighborhood — you’ll find some of the best in America, both in variety and quality. This stretch of road has played host to many taco purveyors since the area was developed after World War II. As the competition has ramped up and the taco-eating public has grown more discerning, the collection has been winnowed down to a superlative 20 or so restaurants and stands.
“Some of the greatest and most important taco places in the country are in Brownsville,” said José R. Ralat, taco editor (yes, taco editor) at Texas Monthly and the author of the forthcoming book "American Tacos: A History and Guide."
Mr. Ralat said that while there are many superb places to eat tacos along the border, Brownsville is remarkable for both the number of its taco vendors and their excellence. “It is just one hot spot, but it really is a bright hot spot.”
On Thursday, the James Beard Foundation endorsed that view by naming a Brownsville restaurant, Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que, one of six recipients of its 2020 America’s Classics Award, “given to locally owned restaurants that have timeless appeal and are beloved regionally for quality food that reflects the character of its community.”
At Sylvia’s, a diner stuffed with Dallas Cowboys paraphernalia, the large flour tortilla encasing the machacado con huevo a la Mexicana, which pairs salty dried beef with fluffy eggs, is buttery and flaky — as if a French pastry met a paratha. Easy To Go Tacos, a tiny, mirror-lined box of a restaurant, is known for its exceptional flautas, tiny tacos rolled up with beef or chicken and fried that can be quickly polished off by the dozen.
At Las 7 Salsas, servers push the kekas, a messy, rib-sticking pile of corn tortillas, refried beans, strips of beef and queso fresco. Tacos El Compadre’s crispy chicken-and-potato-filled tacos dorados are showered in grated queso fresco and shredded lettuce, and seated atop a shallow pool of peppery salsa roja.
Tacos El Compadre serves its chicken-and-potato-stuffed tacos dorados with a shower of shredded lettuce and queso fresco.Credit...Callaghan O'Hare for The New York Times
Business is brisk at most of these establishments, each of which seems to have its own loyal following. Though there are some customers from elsewhere in Texas or beyond, most are Brownsville residents, drawn simply by word of mouth. (The website of the Brownsville Convention & Visitors Bureau has no litings under “Places to Eat.”)
There is considerable hardship in Brownsville — 31 percent of its 183,000 residents live in poverty, according to 2018 census date — but also signs of growth. Annual retail sales total $1.9 billion, the city reported in 2019, while the unemployment rate had fallen to 5.6 percent in December from about double that in 2013, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
A former Walmart in Brownsville has become Casa Padre, a shelter for those who crossed the border as unaccompanied minors.Credit...Callaghan O'Hare for The New York Times
SpaceX, a private aerospace manufacturer founded by Elon Musk, broke ground on the world’s first commercial orbital rocket launch site here in 2014, bringing an influx of capital and jobs. A more divisive employer is Casa Padre, a former Walmart now being used to house about 120 boys, ages 10 to 17, who crossed the border as unaccompanied minors, many fleeing poverty and violence.
The Southmost area, affectionately known as La Southmost, has become a lively center with schools, grocers and banks, frequented mainly by the city’s robust population of Mexican immigrants, many of whom arrived as part of the Bracero Program, a collaboration between the United States and Mexico that brought millions of guest workers to America from 1942 to 1964.
The taco restaurants that opened here in the 1950s and afterward served as models for what would become the modern American taqueria.
To read rest of article, click on link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/dining/tacos-brownsville-texas.html
Business is brisk at most of these establishments, each of which seems to have its own loyal following. Though there are some customers from elsewhere in Texas or beyond, most are Brownsville residents, drawn simply by word of mouth. (The website of the Brownsville Convention & Visitors Bureau has no litings under “Places to Eat.”)
There is considerable hardship in Brownsville — 31 percent of its 183,000 residents live in poverty, according to 2018 census date — but also signs of growth. Annual retail sales total $1.9 billion, the city reported in 2019, while the unemployment rate had fallen to 5.6 percent in December from about double that in 2013, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
A former Walmart in Brownsville has become Casa Padre, a shelter for those who crossed the border as unaccompanied minors.Credit...Callaghan O'Hare for The New York Times
SpaceX, a private aerospace manufacturer founded by Elon Musk, broke ground on the world’s first commercial orbital rocket launch site here in 2014, bringing an influx of capital and jobs. A more divisive employer is Casa Padre, a former Walmart now being used to house about 120 boys, ages 10 to 17, who crossed the border as unaccompanied minors, many fleeing poverty and violence.
The Southmost area, affectionately known as La Southmost, has become a lively center with schools, grocers and banks, frequented mainly by the city’s robust population of Mexican immigrants, many of whom arrived as part of the Bracero Program, a collaboration between the United States and Mexico that brought millions of guest workers to America from 1942 to 1964.
The taco restaurants that opened here in the 1950s and afterward served as models for what would become the modern American taqueria.
To read rest of article, click on link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/dining/tacos-brownsville-texas.html
9 comments:
The conversation started in Spanish to an audience of more than 100 people at the crossroads party. The audience consisted of employees of the city so I heard. The top priority of course was built more bike trails and with ICE check points
Elton Musk has just used Brownsville to have the beach for nothing, as he has proven nothing but failed testing and nothing else
Put an elected official in each rocket trial test so they can get their monies worth or should I say OUR MONIES worth. El grifo can have a going away pachanga on each rocket test at TAX PAYERS EXPENSE
poorest in the nation, migrant children, tacos, blah blah blah
does our region have anything to offer? come on media
showcase our area positively
whatever that might be
juan whos that dude in the blue shirt behind the counter at veras? arent they suppose to wear a hair net or cap if in the kitchen? just saying.
what happen to that taco place on palm blvd by fronton named "el pastor" its been shutdown for a few years now.
Eat a taco and bbq for desert every day and you will keep the birongavirus away, no need help from racist republicans...
@February 27, 2020 at 3:26 PM
Worry about those all you can eat joints full of cockroaches running across all that food. idiota!
Brownsville...the Lone Star card capital of the Valley...welfare cockroaches scurrying around like the insects they are. “Give me something for free senor...”
Post a Comment