Numerous taco trucks and restaurants offered free food, potable water, and even shelter during last week’s winter storm, which knocked out power to approximately four million Texas households. Using tens of thousands of dollars in donations from numerous sources, Boombox Taco’s staff made more than 2,400 tacos to feed eight hundred Houston families. As donations roll in, Boombox and other food trucks are being engaged to serve Houston-area communities.

San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg and Instagram influencer Chris Flores (a.k.a. Eatmigos) paid for one thousand taco lunches at Alamo City restaurants.

In Austin, Cuantos Tacos, Discada, Nixta Taqueria, and others pooled their resources to hand out hundreds of meals. Nixta’s effort was featured in a Washington Post photo essay. Veracruz All Natural also kept its Line Hotel space open for those in need.

Dallas’s Trompo collaborated with Jarritos soda in a statewide effort to hand out thousands of tacos.

 

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This past Tuesday, Staff Meal Dallas partnered with dating website Match and Dallas–Fort Worth taquerias and Mexican restaurants to pay it forward. Participating businesses included Chilangos Tacos, Del Sur Taco, Resident Taqueria, and José.

In Fort Worth, Tokyo Cafe chef Kevin Martinez partnered with Juan Rodriguez of Magdalena’s Supper Club to provide residents with tacos and water.

Texas Monthly’s taco editor tried to keep up with all the updates on Instagram.

Former UT quarterback Colt McCoy, who lost water at his Austin home, gave back to the school he says has given him so much. Alongside student volunteers, associate professor Kevin Robbins, and the SafeHorns group, McCoy distributed free breakfast tacos, snacks, and drinks to students on the UT campus. The food was provided by Tacodeli and Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q.

Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue shared his recipe for steak tacos with Live With Kelly and Ryan. There are instructions for a simple, chile-less salsa roja. The lack of chiles makes us sad.

San Antonio Magazine’s picks for the city’s best barbecue joints include South BBQ & Kitchen, where “the tacos hold their own.” In the same issue, Con Huevos was the editors’ pick for “Best Excuse to Have a Breakfast Taco for Lunch.”

Dallas diners want more taco trucks, and the city council is listening. Make it happen, people.

Eater restaurant critic Robert Sietsema ate some gnarly-looking Frito pie.

Pilo’s Tequila Garden, a 5,500-square-foot indoor and outdoor Mexican restaurant and bar, will open this week in Miami’s Wynnewood neighborhood. Perhaps the most impressive feature of the establishment is a ginormous chandelier-art installation composed of 1,200 dyed ropes and clocking in at two thousand pounds. An indoor altar-style bar doubles as an art gallery with Mexican artists’ work for sale.

You might assume that Wichita, Kansas, doesn’t have a much of a taco scene—but it’s actually booming.

Kansas City alt-weekly The Pitch’s Liz Cook and Natalie Gallagher wrote a stunning exposé on Port Fonda, one of the country’s most lauded—and yet somehow under-the-radar—Mexican restaurants. It’s an in-depth, disturbing reminder of the persistence of toxic workplaces and how we still have a long way to go to address problematic issues in the food industry. The racism and abusive behavior have “been normal for way too long,” as one former Port Fonda employee said.

Cocina Paulis, a flour tortilla maker that hawks its wares on Instagram, is flourishing in Chicago. That’s even though the Windy City is “a corn tortilla town,” as Chicago Tribune food writer Nick Kindelsperger notes. He describes the tortillas as “downright graceful—supple not limp, thick not heavy. The golden-brown spots speckled across each tortilla had the appearance of beauty marks.” Customers can place orders via text message.

Also in Chicago, California-based Man vs. Fries is opening five food trucks to dole out Flamin’ Hot Cheetos–stuffed burritos.

The Maisonets (Sacramento-based Puerto Rican food writer Illyana Maisonet and her mother) dig into puffy tacos and mulitas from Taco Fresco in a recent mukbang video. For the unfamiliar, mukbang is a South Korean–born viral video format showcasing an individual or individuals eating large amounts of food.

In the latest installment of where-is-the-birria-wave-cresting-next: Birria in Charleston. Birria in Nashville. And more importantly, when it comes to your birria preference, are you Team Beef or Team Chivo? Does it matter when you can have both?

On March 1, Taco Fanatico in Tokyo will begin serving a sakura taco as part of the citywide celebration of cherry blossom season. The dessert taco starts with a pink tortilla filled with sweet cherry blossom (sakura) bean paste and matcha tiramisu cream. It’s enough to have any taco fanatic considering a trip to the Japanese capital. The special runs through April.

Dear Taco Bell: you can’t have both a taco and sandwich in one item.