291524 Fri Jan 10 01:51:34 -0800 2003 6 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1586933 Time to check out that cookbook shelf. I stumbled upon this book, "Mexican Gourmet" by Maria Yzabal (1995) - actually I didn't stumble upon the book itself, but rather the Half.com listing for it. The asking price? $200. That's right, $200 for a book just published in 1995. It does indeed appear to be out of print. I figured, "What kind of numnut would pay $200 for a recipe for tortilla soup?" and assumed that the book would never be sold. Now I look back and surprise - it's gone - and there isn't a copy to be found. Some of the other book listing services have it, but the prices are almost as high. Well, then I looked on Ebay. In fact a copy of it sold there on January 3 for the big price of .... $12!! Lucky bidder, dumb seller, I guess. So, my question: does anyone have this book? Is it really so special? If it's so great, why isn't it reprinted? It does seem inevitable that the book will eventually be reprinted and those $200 copies will be worth $10 again. Side point: does anyone else notice that the buys are getting worse and worse over time on Half.Com? There was a time when it seemed like everything was cheap, but the sellers appear to be willing to let things sit for longer now. For many books it's actually cheaper to buy new on buy.com than it is to buy a tattered version on Half.Com. Is there really anyone out there who cares if they have a "first edition" of a Rick Bayless book? Fri Jan 10 01:51:34 -0800 2003 0 Dylan 1 1586937 on half.com and was quite pleased. But for each book sought, I also checked the used selections at Amazon. Purely on price, I ended up buying appx. 50% of the books from each site.... all used. Of these, only 2-3 were purchased on one because the other didn't have the same item in stock. I liked comparing reviews and also found myself going off on tangents, based on user recs (cross checked on here) which is why I ended up buying 12 or so books where I was only originally looking for two. Oh well. Happy with all, and all were in fine shape (no gravy stuck pages). Was going to give some as gifts but ended up stocking my own shelf where at least I know they'll be used! Fri Jan 10 03:15:51 -0800 2003 1586933 0 MixedFeedback 1 1587184 Abe has it for $180.00~PAPERBACK! What is this book? Sat Jan 11 00:10:36 -0800 2003 1586933 0 Cristina 1 1587187 $200 for a Mexican cookbook? Wow! I paid $75 for "Alquimias y Atmosferas Del Sabor -- Alta Gastronomica de dona Carmen Titita"; it's in Spanish which is not my first language. This is probably one of the most visually stunning cookbooks I've ever seen. Ignacio Urquiza did the photography. Dona Carmen is the owner of the venerable El Bajio restaurant in Mexico City. I haven't cooked from this cookbook yet. In part because I'm too lazy to translate the recipes, but mostly because the recipes are all in meteric and I don't like doing the conversions ;-). So with this particular cookbook, I eat with my eyes, and so far it's been a pretty good meal. Sat Jan 11 00:44:07 -0800 2003 1586933 0 Gayla 2 1587188 Well, the link below has a number of recipes from the book. If you hit the link that says visit the website, it actually takes you to Amazon that has customer reviews that seem to rave about the book. The only other review I found about this book can be found under the following link (look under May-hee-coo) http://www.herbies.com.au/news/news_feb1999.html I wonder what pushed up the price. Some one chatting on line said they picked up a copy of the book for $5 in 2000. I think I may visit some used book stores this weekend and see if I can find some copies to sell on e-bay. Link: http://www.mycookbook.net/Cookbook_Detail.asp?Source=The%20Mexican%20Gourmet Sat Jan 11 01:34:23 -0800 2003 1587187 0 Stanley Stephan 3 1587226 Hi Stanley Thanks for the links, very interesting. I actually found 2 recipes from the recipe link that I think I will try. However, from the recipes posted to the link, I don't see them as being any more outstanding than those already in print by all the usual suspects. Made me kind of wonder if the folks who did reviews on Amazon had much experience with cooking Mexican or if they were seduced by great photography. Or perhaps the recipe link just chose the recipes they thought might be the easiest and most approachable for their audience. Based on the comments made by the Amazon posters I would be willing to bet one of the reasons "Mexican Gourmet" so expensive is the photography, everyone mentioned it. Made it sound more like a coffee-table book than a cookbook. Now I'm curious about the book, I'd kind of like to see it. But just so that everyone is clear, the book I posted about is a different book than "Mexican Gourmet". It appears that "Mexican Gourmet" is in English and out of print. The book I posted about "Alquimias y Atmosfera" is in Spanish and definitely in print. It is, BTW, *only* $100 on Amazon ;-). I can speak reasonable Spanish, but my reading skills are not up to the same level, so it takes me a longer time to do translations, which is why I haven't cooked from the book I posted about. Link: http://www.cookbookfair.com/nominee/cookbook/LATINAMERICA.htm Sat Jan 11 12:34:17 -0800 2003 1587188 0 Gayla 2 1587225 No need for math conversions: Get yourself a good kitchen scale and measure your ingredients in metrics. Sat Jan 11 12:28:14 -0800 2003 1587187 0 saucyknave