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A spread of Texas barbecue, smoked lengua, and tacos at Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q. Photograph by José R. Ralat Three years ago, Frank Hernandez opened the King Kups trailer at a McKinney gas station. He originally planned to dish out only elotes, cups of cooked corn kernels doused in cream, butter, queso fresco, hot sauce, and other toppings. “We would come up with different versions of elotes, doing the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and different flavors. It just grew from there,” Hernandez tells me. A stocky, goateed former nightclub DJ and promoter, the McKinney native decided to go into the food business after years of traveling to California to visit friends and peers in the music industry. They would trade barbs about the differences in Mexican food between their home states. At first, Hernandez wanted to bridge Texas Mexican and Cali-Mex with a laser focus on elotes. But a year after opening King Kups, he met Jen Hui, a Chinese immigrant and entrepreneur looking to invest ....
The torta ahogada at Birotes Tortas Ahogadas in San Antonio. Photograph by José R. Ralat Despite the struggles of a global pandemic and the subsequent recession, 2020 has been an extraordinary year for tacos and Mexican cuisine. The creativity and resilience with which taquerias and restaurants have responded to unprecedented adversity is uplifting. I’ve eaten better this year, in and out of dining rooms, than ever before. Before COVID-19 swept through Texas, I was able to squeeze in a quick trip into Matamoros, Brownsville’s sister city across the border. Had I been able to get back to Mexico at least one more time, I’m sure this list would’ve been longer. It is nevertheless a roundup of excellent eats (in no particular order) from across the state and just across the Rio Grande. I’d eagerly scarf all of these again, pronto. ....