Customer Reviews

Hot & Spicy Latin Dishes: The Best Fiery Food from Las Americas

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This book was filled with anecdotes and anthropological points of view of the history and cultures that created these dishes. What I found very useful about the listings was that each recipe was put into its own country category, and sometimes even it's city of origin. It had many recipes that were not mainsteam, restaurant fair, but more the home-cooking of latin american people, which I like. I also liked the fact that they used chiles that are not found in the US, but gave you substitutions of chiles that are available there.

These are rather unusual recipes for the usual palate--I don't know how accurately they reflect the original dishes but they range from Bolivian to Peruvian to Amazonian dishes. Many of them, recipes I've never seen elsewhere. Most ingredients are available (especially in latin markets) but the variety of chiles used may be difficult for many people to replicate. At the front of the book is a short explanation of the beginning of this cuisine in Latin America, but I would have appreciated possible substitutions if you can't find a particular chile. Lots of meat and fish dishes. And some dishes call for things like steak sauce or worcestershire sauce, which clearly aren't native to Latin America but they must be used to imitate flavors.

The recipes themselves are quite simple and don't tend to have long lists of ingredients. This is not a difficult cookbook and this isn't nuevo Latin cuisine. But, simple, spicy food. This is a cookbook for someone looking for an easy introduction to spicy latin food without relying too much on authenticity.