Customer Reviews

The San Antonio TEX-MEX Cookbook

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

 

 

If you're from Texas (and I am), you know that the best Mexican food in the state(if not the world) is from San Antonio. There are plenty of nouveau yuppie chefs in places like Dallas or Santa Fe that will tell you how to make bleau cheese queso and wheat flour tortilla chips but hey- su madre never made it that way. The San Antonio Tex-Mex Cookbook skips the fancy new stuff but has all real food you grew up with if you're from South Texas. The tortilla soup is as good as my grandmother's. My only criticism is the margarita recipe-two of those things will put the most macho on the floor. If you're an expatriate Texan and can't get to La Fogata or Mi Tierra yourself, this is your survival manual.

I was in San Antonio for the first time recently, and discovered this thing called Tex-Mex cuisine. Why I didn't get the book when I was there, I don't know, but I couldn't stop thinking about all the great dishes I had when I was there. I have tried several recipes from this book and they are wonderful...the fideo pasta dish, avocado soup, cucumber salad and mango salad. The dishes accomodate light to hearty appetites, and the quantities make it easy to plan for entertaining guests. If you want a break from the usual, pick this one up.

This book has a cutesy cover and illustrations that make it a great gift for Mom or Aunt Sally. Despite this light-hearted appearance, the book has some great recipes for the serious cook. San Antonio really does have its own style of Mexican food and authentic recipes are very hard to find. This book seems to have most of them. I really liked the mole recipe.

I have to admit with the high reviews I was expecting a really great cookbook. I was disappointed. Some of the recipes were extremely basic and many relied on convenience and processed foods. I prefer other Tex-Mex cookbooks, such as The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos by Robb Walsh.

I ordered this, because I love this type of food, and because I want to in some small way make up for the total moron who rated it with one star. She said because she does not know what the food is supposed to look like, and there are no pictures of the food in it. What planet is she from?

Hey, there are thousands of cookbooks out there with no color glossy pro photos of the food you idiot. Like most of the Junior League ones, and the entire 'Best of the Best' series, just as a tip of the iceburg. And I don't mean iceburg lettuce. I recently inquired about the cost of printing up a couple of hundred recipes with COLOR PICTURES, and it was on the order of $18. a BOOK. Now, if you only want cookbooks that are done from big name chefs, with big bucks behind their publishing, just stumble your way into your local bookstore and buy them.

But some of the very BEST cookbooks, with the most authentic recipes do not have photos. A lot are self-published. Now if the average person does the self-publishing route, and spends $18 to please some idiot, then tries to make a PROFIT on it- heaven help us what it would cost. Then the whiner would say it had a tacky binding. Or something.

How about this? Why don't you COOK some of the recipes and see how they TASTE? Then judge it. Did you knock your grandmother's recipe box because there were no glossy photos? Did she even bother to write any of her recipes DOWN? I say efforts like this author has made are well worth it and helps ALL OF US. And I thank her very much for the effort that it takes. Anyway, I now can safely say, having it in hand, it IS worth more than 5 stars.

I know, I should not be so mad about someone zipping in and totally trying to wreck a person's life and livelyhood. But it pisses me off big time having been the victim of it a few too many times myself.

This book provided me with new ideas on how to spice up my old and bland receipes. I am truly enjoying the excitment this is putting into my cooking. Elizabeth has captured the flavor of Mexico with a Texas / US flair. A great addition to any bodies cooking.

It could have been better.