Peachy the Magazine September October 2015 | Page 65
AUSTIN
Tamale Addiction
1418 Barton Springs Road
512.278.1775
Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ
7612 Brodie Lane
512.221.4248
Valentina’s “pitmaster,” Miguel Vidal,
has brought together the two basic
food groups near and dear to any
Texan’s heart, Tex Mex and BBQ. He’s
also smoking some of the best damn
brisket you can get in Austin outside
of the usual suspects (Franklin’s BBQ,
La Barbecue and John Mueller Meat
Company). Valentina’s offers brisket,
pulled pork and pulled chicken as
either tacos (with different garnishes
and salsas) or as BBQ sandwiches.
Their flour tortillas are killer, and the
brisket taco is my favorite. It’s just a
flour tortilla, chopped smoky brisket
and a small dousing of simple and
slightly spicy red salsa fresca. That’s it,
and it is incredible.
All of the tamales are pretty good, but
my favorites are the ones wrapped in
banana leaves. The Chiapaneco is my
number one; the masa is delicate, just
a little crumbly and intensely corny
(in a good way). It’s full of pulled
chicken thigh meat slathered in a bitter, exotic and cocoa-y mole sauce, and
every other bite has either a little bit of
prune, green olive or fried plantain. The
banana leaf imparts a fruity aromatic
smell and flavor to the corn masa.
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2015
63