Nuevo Tex-Mex: Festive New Recipes from Just North of the Border [Paperback]

Robb Walsh (Author), David Garrido (Author), Manny Rodriguez (Photographer), Stephan Pyles (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

Nuevo Tex-Mex cooking, the hottest new trend in Nuevo Latino cuisine, embraces and celebrates both its zesty Latin American flavors and no-nonsense Texas personality. This is hearty food for real people, people who are not afraid to drink a beer (or a shot of tequila) with a meal (even if it's breakfast) and get their hands a little messy. It's food that knows how to have fun without rolling in heavy ingredients. In Nuevo Tex-Mex, Texan chef David Garrido's hip and innovative recipes are presented by Texan food writer Robb Walsh with lots of humor and attitude, all photographed in vivid color and spectacular style by Texan photographer Manny Rodriguez. Even the book's designer is from Texas! This is absolutely the best thing to come along since ice cold beer, tortilla chips, and guacamole.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There's something awfully comforting about a cookbook that starts with a chapter on what to drink (which beers with which kinds of food) followed by eight cocktail recipes, five of them a variation on the margarita theme. Hibiscus Margaritas and Mango-Key Lime Margaritas should tip off the unsuspecting that they have just entered uncharted territory.

The drink chapter is followed by the salsa chapter (Papaya-Habanero Salsa, anyone?) is followed by breakfast--Truffled Egg Tacos? Bacon-Gruyere Migas? "What a cathartic joy it is," writes Robb Walsh, former food editor of the Austin Chronicle and one of the few American food writers with functioning taste buds, "to make a happy face with two sunny-side up eggs for eyes and bacon strips for a mouth, and to douse that cheerful bastard with a torrent of fiery red sauce." With sentiments like that, the reader is assured that only good food can follow.

And follow it does: Steak, Endive, and Blue Cheese Tacos; Shark-BLT Tacos; Serrano Ham Quesadillas; Pork and Raisin Pasillas; Wild Mushroom Mole Enchiladas; Duck Breast in Green Mole; Chipotle Swordfish Fajitas; and on into desserts.

The authors would like us to believe that this is a whole new departure on Tex-Mex food. And it certainly is that, a departure. But what they call Nuevo Tex-Mex is really just the same contrived "fusion" that happens when overamped chefs shove cuisines and ingredients of the world up against each other. There isn't anything in this book that couldn't be put on a pizza, say, and if baked in a wood-fired oven, be called startling and revolutionary in some circles. Many of the results of David Garrido's fun-in-the-kitchen escapade are indeed tasty, but benchmark of a new cuisine? Hardly that. This could only happen in America, where the culinary compass is currently in the control of a gentle-voiced Chihuahua with a taste for Taco Bell. --Schuyler Ingle

Review

Nuevo Tex Mex is definitely onto something: Great gutsy cooking that combines the irascible charm of the 'old' Tex-Mex with the genius of regional Mexican kitchens. Rick Bayless, author of Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen

Food historians ten or twenty years hence might well call it a benchmark, a book that shows, through 98 engaging recipes, and a lively, enlightening text, where a major element of Texas cooking has been and where it might well be headed. Texas Monthly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811816125
• ISBN-13: 978-0811816120
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #88 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Mexican

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forget neuveaux cuisine, now there's Nuevo Tex-Mex, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Nuevo Tex-Mex: Festive New Recipes from Just North of the Border (Paperback)

Today there are many cookbooks on Mexican cuisine. There are many on the style blending the Mexican foods with that of nearby Texas commonly known as Tex-Mex. With all of the people eating nachos, tacos and enchiladas, and all the recipes for salsas, moles and tortillas fillings there was bound to be a time that people needed a change. That change has come and has been put together by David Garrido, a chef at Jeffery's in Austin, Texas; and Robb Walsh winner of a James Beard journalism award in their new cookbook Nuevo Tex-Mex - festive new recipes from just north of the border. The cookbook contains many beautiful photographs from Manny Rodriguez food photographer originally from Havana. Together, they have all created a nice compilation of new foods that include: Mango-Key Lime Margaritas; Papaya-Habanero Salsa; Mushroom Salsa; Spinach & Mushroom Chilaquiles; Steak, Endive and Blue Cheese Tacos; Shark-BLT Tacos; Crab & Spinach Nachos; Habanero Mayo; Jalapeno Corn slaw; Wild Mushroom Mole Enchiladas; Duck Enfrijoladas Blancos; Pork Chops in Apple Butter Mole; Chipotle Swordfish Fajitas; Coca Cola Habanero Potatoes; and Pumpkin Flan. Many of the recipes are very simple to make, but there are may ingredients that are not readily available at the local market, and would need to be found at a specialty food store. There are a few additions to the recipes allowing the reader to try alternatives, and a list of terminology in the back of the book referred to by many recipes. Nuevo Tex-Mex, published by Chronicle Books, has a lot for the adventurous eater, but the standard basic food person or Tex-Mex eater would not want this one. It is truly for the serious eater.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great recipes that pump new life into taste buds, July 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Nuevo Tex-Mex: Festive New Recipes from Just North of the Border (Paperback)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The recipes are wonderful, easy to follow and lead to fantastic meals. Nuevo Tex-Mex cooking? I don't know much about the title, I just know I savored the food. The Swordfish Fajitas were wonderful. I have always loved Mexican food and this book offers me new, cool ways to enjoy my old favs. If you love offering your family and friends something that will perk up their taste buds (in some cases way more than a mere perk) and have them asking, "what's in this, its great", get this cookbook.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars deep in the heart of Tex-Mex, December 31, 1999

By 

R. C Jolly (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nuevo Tex-Mex: Festive New Recipes from Just North of the Border (Paperback)

Being from San Antonio - I was a little sceptical when I checked this out from the library. I don't know about 'Nuevo' as a trend, but the book is a delight and I hadn't had it home for more than an hour or so before I was on Amazon ordering a copy. It is fun to read and fun to cook from and the whole layout of the book is a delight with fine color photographs.