Food & drink
From Taste of Harlingen to a parish menudo sale to a Friday food truck night, food is one of the most consistently well-attended categories in the Valley — and one of the most flyer-driven.
Food in the Valley is rarely a category on its own — it is the reason most of the other categories are well attended. But it does have events of its own, and they run in three shapes.
Tasting events like Taste of Harlingen bring area restaurants and caterers together for a single evening, usually ticketed. Plate sales are fundraisers: one dish, one morning, sold until gone. Barbacoa on a Sunday — which is beef head, sold by the pound, and is not American barbecue in any sense — or menudo, or brisket plates from a booster club. Food truck nights and cook-offs fill the middle, usually on a Friday, usually outdoors, usually free to walk into.
December is its own season. Tamaladas — all-day family tamal-making — are the most widespread food tradition in the Valley and are almost entirely private, which is why they are nearly invisible on any calendar. What is public in December is the church and school tamal sales that run alongside them.
Two things worth knowing. Barbacoa sells out. If a parish or a shop is selling it on a Sunday morning, mid-morning is already late. And carne asada is both a dish and an event — when someone says they are going to a carne asada, they mean a backyard gathering, not a plate.
At a glance
| What it is | Tastings, plate sales, food truck nights, cook-offs, and the food that is the real reason people go to everything else |
|---|---|
| Peaks | December (tamaladas) · October–November (fall festivals) · Sunday mornings, all year |
| Typical cost | Pay per plate, cash · ticketed tasting events |
| Strongest cities | Harlingen · McAllen · Brownsville · Port Isabel · South Padre Island |
| Bring | Cash · an appetite · a cooler for the plate sale |
By city
Food & drink across the Valley
Pick a city to see what Qué Hay will cover there.
Other categories
We never invent an event to make a category look busy. If a category is thin, it is thin — and we would rather show you that honestly than waste your Saturday.