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Fire Up Your Grill! The Fajita Fiesta Cook Off is Coming to Buda

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Tony Maples Photography

 

Fire up your grill and prime your taste buds because The Fajita Fiesta and Cook Off is happening in Buda, Texas on September 29 and 30. This is a free event that offers something for all ages. Fiesta goers will experience a blending of foods, music, and cultures at this event, while also rediscovering Texas through sights, sounds, and their taste buds! The tantalizing aroma of sizzling fajitas will fill the air of Buda, attracting people from the Rio Grande to north of the Mason Dixon Line.

Ay Chihuahua!

chihuahua pageant

Photo: Facebook/FajitaFiestaTX

This year’s festival will feature more entertainment than you can throw a tortilla at including a Chihuahua pageant, Mariachi bands, Ballet Folklorico and Amanda Solis – who performs tribute shows to Tejano sensation, Selena. The headliner this year is Grammy award-winning country music star, Rick Trevino.

In Texas, grilling is not just a weekend pastime but a competitive sport. At Fajita Fiesta, grill masters and pit masters alike will compete for top dollar cash payouts, trophies, bragging rights, and to find out who is the best of the best.

A Brief History of the Fajita

Fajita Fiesta Cook Off

Photo: Facebook/FajitaFiestaTX

The history of the fajita, goes back as far as the 1930s to the ranch lands of South and West Texas. During cattle roundups, beef were butchered regularly to feed the hands. Throwaway items such as the hide, the head, the entrails, and meat trimmings such as skirt steak were given to the Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) as part of their pay. These vaqueros are thought to have invented the recipe for fajitas.

In 1969, Sonny Falcon, an Austin meat market manager, operated the first commercial fajita taco concession stand at a rural Dies Y Seis celebration in Kyle, Texas. That same year, fajitas debuted on the menu at Otilia Garza’s Round-Up Restaurant in the Rio Grande Valley community of Pharr and the rest is history.

To learn more about Fajita Fiesta in Buda, visit their website or Facebook page.