chilli book review
Foods Of The Maya: A Taste Of The Yucatan
- My Review
chilli book review
Foods Of The Maya - A Taste Of The Yucatan.
by Nancy & Jeffrey Gerlach
Classification: Food History + Recipes
Illustrated: No
Overall Rating : 8/10
Like me, Nancy & Jeffrey have a passion for Mexican culture - unlike me they get to go there !
This is an interesting book. Part cultural documentation, part travel guide, part cookbook. The Gerlachs clearly enjoy the Yucatan area of Mexico and the culture history associated with it.
One thing I particularly like is that they view, and present, the Mayan culture as a living, breathing, evolving entity rather than something that existed in the dim dark ages. And this is as it should be as the direct descendants of the Mayan Indians are today's Yucatan residents. The culture didn't die out - it simply evolved into it's current form.
The recipes are very authentic but presented in conjunction with techniques that today's Mayan Indians use that weren't available during the height of the Mayan civilisation. An example would be the use of a food processor for making spice mixes and pastes rather than spending an hour grinding them in a stone molcajete (sort of like a mortar and pestle).
Some of the ingredients can be difficult to source but if you look hard enough you will find that most countries have at least one supplier of Mexican food products. For Australian readers there are some listed at the links page
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