Recipe of Memory: Five Generations of Mexican Cuisine - Softcover

Valle, Victor M.; Valle, Mary Lau

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565841271 ISBN 13: 9781565841277

Publisher: New Press, The, 1997

Synopsis

Nominated for two 1996 Julia Child Cookbook Awards and a 1996 James Beard Award, Recipe of Memory is a unique cookbook drawing on the contents of an antique chest left to Victor Valle by his great aunt. The book includes more than fifty authentic recipes--including such mouthwatering delights as Chiles stuffed with Shrimp, and Roast Leg of Lamb with Mole Sauce, dating back to 1888--alongside the compelling story of five generations of the Valle family.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Classified by the publisher under the headings Cookbooks and Mexican-American Studies, this mix of recipes, photos, anecdotes and history blends its ingredients much as Mole Caragueno combines lamb, chiles, peanuts, clove and cinnamon. Delving into a treasury of 250 recipes collected and recorded by Victor Valle's family from the 1880s into this century, the authors follow the family's history from Guadalajara to Tijuana and then to Los Angeles. Just as early music sounds different when played on early instruments, old recipes taste different when prepared in the old ways; a recipe from the past allows readers "to sit down with ghosts" and taste the Chiles Stuffed with Shrimp as they were savored at Sunday lunch in 1888. Recipes such as Conejo en Huerto (Rabbit in the Garden), Sopa de Pichones (Squab on Saffron Rice) and Helado de Tuna (Prickly Pear Sorbet) capture what Mexico's poet laureate, Octavio Paz, calls the "shock of tastes; cool and piquant, salt and sweet, hot and tart, pungent and delicate." Such contrasts in this volume?e.g., quotations from academic historians juxtaposed with methods of roasting, toasting and soaking chiles?similarly startle and often enlighten.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A deft mix of recipes, family history, and social history. . . Well-written and well-illustrated with period photographs. . . a book for both the kitchen and the study. -- Houston Chronicle

Interweaving politics and food, family anecdotes with historical fact. . . the Valles have produced far more than a cookbook. -- L.A. Weekly

With the language of a poet and the eye of a journalist and political writer, the Valles re-create their culinary legacy while giving us a taste of the social history of late nineteenth-century Mexico. -- New York Daily News

About this edition

• Publisher: New Press, The
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1565841271
• ISBN 13: 9781565841277
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192