He serves hand-made tortillas

He serves hand-made tortillas, zippy tomato-Serrano salsa (you can find the recipe for it here, cumin-laced brisket infused with their house spice rub, and pork butts that he tends to for 14 to 16 hours a day.cooking food. He’s also won over followers with his smoky takes on Tex-Mex classics like a sopa de fideo (served on Fridays), a tomato-based soup made with fried vermicelli noodles topped with smoked beef picadillo or brisket guisada (a lip-smackin’ meaty gravy Vidal creates using a week’s worth of trimmings).

Also special, his barbacoa. Vidal smokes beef cheeks instead of the traditional whole head — “it took up too much space in the pit.” The mouthwatering result is lean yet rich and fragrant with smoke. Though almost nocturnal, Vidal sees the early inklings of a crowd when smoke aficionados show up at 7:30 a.m. for his barbecue breakfast tacos. “That was something that wasn’t hard to introduce, but it caught people off guard—in a good way,” Vidal says. “This is what we’re doing with our leftover food [at home] anyway; it’s cool that someone’s doing it fresh.” The three breakfast tacos include traditional offerings of potato, egg, and cheese, and the ultimate bean and cheese taco is the “hechos con amor” as the truck’s motto dictates. The Real Deal Holyfield, one of Valentina’s best sellers, was a happy accident Vidal created one morning for his father: flour tortillas hold a schmear of velvety refried beans, crisp potatoes, bacon, fried egg, and choice of brisket or carnitas. “It was a special, and it sold out for the day by 11,” he says.