Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition (The William and Bettye Nowlin Series in Art, History, and Culture of the Western Hemisphere)
*Starred Review* This is not just a cookbook; it’s also a labor of love that well documents places, people, and, yes, food on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. In fact, one south-of-the-border culinary maven who has blessed Sterling’s endeavor (through TV appearances) is Rick Bayless. Is there really a difference between Yucatan menus and dishes from other Mexican states? Sterling points to the extensive use of recados (curries) and alcaparrados (capers, raisins, olives, and almonds) as well as influences from Spain and Portugal, France and Holland, and Lebanon, Cuba, and Africa to create such dishes as sopa de lima and achiote. The more than 275 recipes are gathered in groupings based on the heartland, the coast, the cities, and the villages, populated, too, with excellent photographs of many Yucatan natives (meet 73-year-old Hernán Perrera Novelo, who still farms his plot). Ingredients are featured with a description and their culinary uses, including both familiar and indigenous, such as avocado, cashew apples, oscillated turkey, and lobster, to mention a handful. It will be difficult not to turn on all the burners and oven to try pilikanes, turkey in maize, fish-head soup, pan dulce, or crispy fried pork skin. --Barbara Jacobs