best mexican regional cookbooks

[honkman]

Based on the thread about good italian regional cookbooks I was just wondering if there are any good mexican regional cookbooks. I know that there are cookbooks which cover all of Mexico but discuss about certain dishes coming from certain regions but similar to Italy I am interested to get cookbooks which focus only on particular regions of Mexico. (So the questions is if there are any "The Spendid Table" analogs for Mexico)

[Leucadian]

I was browsing Zarela Martinez' earlier 'Food and Life of Oaxaca', and was very taken with it. History, food, recipes. I'll be getting it soon. What I liked about the chapter that I read was the background of the cuisine, what came from where, when and why. I really like that. And the fact that she grew up with the cuisine.

I'm re-reading Diana Kennedy Cuisines of Mexico, and it is definitely worth the effort. There is a lot that I missed the first time through.

[clamscasino]

Food from My Heart by Zarela Martinez has to be my all-time favorite for great reading in a cook book. Just wish I could find all those different chiles. Sigh...

[kare_raisu]

If you can read Spanish I found a series of books at the Ritmo Latino Music store next to El Tigre in Escondido that offer cookbooks entitled with the region. I recall them stocking: Jalisco, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosi, Queretero etc.

There are about three thick books by DK - the knowledge I have gleaned from reading all of these - definitly does more than scratch the surface.

I reccomend you checking all three of these out and reading from cover to cover rather than skimming and or picking where to read.

[gridder]

Check out Rick Bayless's books - his recipes are outstanding. I don't know how much he differentiates between regions, though.

[serious]

Zarela's Vera Cruz - cooking and culture in Mexico's tropical melting pot.

[Chimayo Joe]

A Yucatan Kitchen by Loretta Scott Miller is fairly good. It's a relatively small, plain-Jane cookbook with no pictures or stylish graphics, but the recipes are good.

The Border Cookbook by Jamison & Jamison includes the cooking of Northern Mexico which tends to get ignored or dismissed in many general Mexican Cookbooks. It's a good cookbook that also has U.S. regional variations on Mexican food of the border states. Big cookbook but no photos in this one either.

[Carb Lover]

I just checked out Susana Trilling's, Season's of My Heart: A culinary journey through Oaxaca, Mexico. This region's food is particularly fascinating for me, and the recipes generally sound wonderful. I hope to test out at least a couple of recipes from the book before I return it. The writing is nice and you get a feel for her connection to the locals. I do wish there were more food photos though! Some of the ingredients may be difficult to find depending on where you live, and I didn't see much on substitutions. Anyone have specific comments about this book?

Amazon listing:
http://www.amazon.com/Seasons-My-Hear...

[Candy]

Check out Diana Kennedy. Cuisines of Mexico, Mexican Regional Cooking etc.

[honkman]

I might overlook some books from Diana Kennedy but I think she doesn't have any books which focus only on one region at a time. There are books which have chapters covering certain regions but I feel that those books only scratch the surface of the different regions. I much more prefer to have books covering only one region in much more depth.

[pitu]

If you feel that way about Kennedy after actually using the books, fine.
The essence of her approach is teasing out the regional specialties; IMHO Diana Kenndy does far more than scratch the surface.