Customer Reviews

Food from My Heart: Cuisines of Mexico Remembered and Reimagined

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you love Mexico, it's cuisine, and it's traditions, you will love this book. The recipes are all superb and Zarela's warmth and love of her family, culture, and food, take center stage. This book captured my heart and took me on a nostalgic journey through the foods and holidays of my childhood! It is a pleasure to recommend this book.

I purchased this book after having checked it out of the library and finding I could not let it go -- paid a heavy fine to the library, too! This book is now the most often used in my kitchen. I love to read the author's childhood memories and the background she sets up for the recipes. The recipes are not too complicated, and I have not tried one that has not been a winner! I understand it is now out of print, but I would highly recommend it to anyone who can aquire it!

I borrowed the book to learn more about tamales/ but found myself actually reading the book. Excellent. I now want to own it.

This wonderful cookbook is part history book ( of Zarela Martinez' family and experiences in Mexico) as well as being a great book full of wonderful recipes. These recipes are "authenically Mexican" as opposed to being an Americanized version of Mexican food (which is what you are liable to find here in America.) Her subsequent books on Oaxaca and Veracruz are also worth checking out.

This is only one of 2 cookbooks that I will ever need. I was looking for a cookbook that was authentic and not watered down. Since I am Mexican/American I am very picky about my Mexican food and this book is the real deal.

It is also the only reliable reference that I have found for making tamales exactly the way they should be made. If you ever wanted to make "real" tamales. Get this book.

Sitting in the kitchen windowseat near the stove, age 6, I learned to make white sauce by watching my mother prepare chicken a la king. That's how I felt on first reading Food From My Heart. Although Mexican cuisine had been my favorite since grad school (when I was blessed with a Chicana landlady who spoiled me entirely for store-bought tortillas)FFMY provided me a solid grounding in all the basics of la comida. I consider it the only Mexican cookbook anyone really needs.
Just one example of Zarela's basic + creative approach: once you master fresh corn tortillas and creamy, tart-spicy Salsa de Tomatillo con Crema, she sets out Enchiladas de Cangrejo, combining these two with good crabmeat and queso. And you start thinking: this would work with chicken, or lobster, or a veggie mix. It's more than recipes, it's showing you the secret of good cooking: HOW to cook.
Besides all that, even if you don't usually read cookbooks like novels, bet you will have this one on your bedside table a week or two! Just as her dishes combine distinct flavors, to produce a delicious harmony, the book's chapters layer family and national history, food culture and botany with the recipes themselves. The book could not have been better named, and along with the food itself, will find its way to your heart.