World Cuisine

Hugo Ortega's Street Food of Mexico rocks! And if you are planning a holiday cocktail party and want a break from pigs in blankets and crab cakes, this book is all you need!

One cannot be in Houston without swooning over a Hugo Ortega restaurant. Delicious evenings can be spent at the foodie delight, Backstreet Café, or his original - Hugo’s, but my favorite is Caracol – the best Coastal Mexican restaurant in the world. (See One for the Table review in archives)

Mexican street food, in this book, is not just the simple taco that comes to mind. Ortega traveled the breadth of Mexico re-discovering the local foods of his homeland, giving us delicious and unexpected recipes. Just scanning the pages of Street Food of MEXICO is a sensual treat.

I have never seen a book with more surprises: Mitchelada con camarones (Spicy Beer Cocktail with Shrimp), Salbutes con pato en recado negro (Thick Tortillas Topped with Duck in a Black Seasoning Paste), Guajolotas (Tamal Stuffed Sandwiches from Mexico City}, Ensalada de jumiles con nopales (fresh Crawfish and Cactus Salad), Camotes Poblanos (Sweet Potato Candied Rolls)… it goes on of course!

I reviewed a lot of cookbooks this past year, but these are some that I feel really strongly about. Let me tell you why...

Vibrant Food: Celebrating the Ingredients, Recipes, and Colors of Each Season is one of the most beautiful cookbooks this year, written by the talented The Year in Food blogger and photographer, Kimberley Hasselbrink. She has an eye for color and texture and that means her mostly vegetarian recipes are as pretty to look at they are delicious to eat.

Her flavor combinations are often unique but make perfect sense. She pairs risotto with edamame and sautéed radishes. She tops grilled halloumi with fresh strawberries, mint and cilantro. Turkey burgers are topped with cheddar and balsamic figs.

The book is divided into seasons and highlights different ingredients. Feeling bored by Winter squash? Chile Roasted Delicata Squash with Queso Fresco or Soba Noodles with Kabocha Squash in a Mellow Japanese Curry will jazz things up. This is an inspiring book with very unique and appealing recipes.

I love Chinese food but I rarely make it at home. I have a few favorite recipes, but I am definitely interested in trying more so I was thrilled to see Fuchsia Dunlop's latest cookbook, Every Grain of Rice which focuses on simple Chinese home cooking. I like the book, my only complaint is that sometimes more explanation of certain ingredients would be helpful; for example in my local Chinese markets I can find lots of different noodles, but some of the recipes just say "wheat noodles" or when I see an ingredient like celery I wonder, should I use conventional celery or Chinese celery?

I made a dish I adore and which is featured on the cover, Dan Dan noodles. While I have certain ingredients like both dark and light soy sauce, Chinkiang vinegar and Shaoxing wine in order to make this particular dish I went ahead and purchased some sweet fermented sauce and embarked on a search for find ya cai. Ok, this is where is gets complicated. I searched high and low at every Chinese grocery store I could find and there was no ya cai, a kind of preserved mustard green. In fact one store told me they hadn't carried it in a long time despite requests from restaurants. I did find lots of other preserved vegetables and Tianjin preserved vegetable another kind of salt pickled cabbage with garlic which I used instead. It's a delicious savory vegetable that adds a really nice texture to dishes and is fairly easy to find.

I’ve always been a summer kind of girl but I’ve got soft spot for winter holidays especially the festivities of the winter equinox. In Persian culture, on the first night of winter (which is also the longest night of winter), everyone stays up late to gather around one another, eat great food, and share poetry and stories. We call this evening Shab-e Yalda.

So while I don’t quite have the fire pit to gather my friends around, I do have my beloved coffee table (it can hold just the right amount of coffee table books than a true book collector can dream of) and every winter, I purchase a delicious cookbook to make new dishes and a new storybook for friends to discover when they come over.

For this year, I’m displaying two of the most beautiful books I have ever come across: the cookbook Pomegranates and Roses: My Persian Family Recipes and the illustrated book Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian Kings which is a new illustrated version of Ferdowsi’s beloved tale. So whether it’s to celebrate Shab-e Yalda or any of this season’s holidays, both of these incredible books make fantastic gifts. They are visually striking, lavish in detail, and truly memorable.

So eat, read, and repeat all winter long…between the decadent recipes in Pomegranates and Roses and the 500 plus pages of illustrated beauty in Shahnameh…there’s plenty to get cozy and happy about over this holiday season.