BBQ
February 19, 2020
Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que Named an American Classic by James Beard Foundation
The 65-year-old Brownsville restaurant specializes in traditional underground pit-smoked cows’ heads.
Vera's Backyard Bar-B-Que
Tacos
November 19, 2019
Taco of the Week: Machacado con Huevo a la Mexicana at Sylvia’s
The tortillas de harina at this Brownsville restaurant are amazing, but just one is more than enough.
BBQ
December 12, 2018
The Top 15 Tex-Mex BBQ Bites in Texas
Exciting things are happening as pitmasters join the two cuisines together in new and delicious ways.
BBQ Joint Reviews
June 1, 2017
Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que (Top 50)
With roots in Mexico, barbacoa became a mainstay on South Texas ranches, where cowboys were hungry and cow heads were plentiful (Texans were expert at nose-to-tail eating long before it became trendy). Today, most commercial barbacoa is steamed or done in pressure cookers to comply with health codes. Vera’s time-honored…
BBQ
July 8, 2015
BBQ Anatomy 101: Beef Head
Before there was Texas, one form of Texas barbecue was cemented in the culture of the Rio Grande Valley. How so? The answers lies in a hole in the ground. We’re talking about barbacoa de cabeza en pozo—beef heads cooked with wood coals in subterranean pits. Beef barbacoa can be…
BBQ
May 21, 2013
Vera’s: The Last Bastion of South Texas Barbacoa
Since the closing of Mancha’s Meat Market in Eagle Pass, there is only one place in all of Texas—maybe the entire country—that still serves traditional barbacoa: whole beef heads cooked in an underground pit over wood coals. The sign out front of Vera’s in Brownsville says it all: “Barbacoa en…
BBQ Joint Reviews
March 26, 2012
Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que
I’m not here to tell you that I’m an authority on barbacoa. I know enough about it to be dangerous, and I’ve eaten enough of it to know that what I ate at Vera’s was something special. The funny part is that the best place to get barbacoa…