Inspiration from an old cookbook

Xochi's Bookstore and Gallery is located in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, a pleasant two and a half hour drive from my home town of El Paso, Texas.  It boasts 14 rooms filled top to bottom with rare, vintage and antique books.

Entrance to Xochi's Bookstore

I was just walking out the door of Xochi's, empty-handed,  when my eye fell on yet another cookbook:  The Essentials Cuisines of Mexico, copyright 2000.

When I saw the author's name, Diana Kennedy, on the cover I knew this was no run-of-the-mill cookbook.  I had found a treasure.  Diana Kennedy is one of the foremost experts on Mexican cuisine.   Two of her books, The Tortilla Book and Recipes from the Regional Cooks of Mexico, are already in my (embarrassingly large) cookbook library.

You might well ask why I need three cookbooks about Mexican cuisine.  You might also well ask why I still buy cookbooks at all, with recipes galore available through the Internet.  It's because I love to read cookbooks, and I bet I'm not alone in the world.

The Essentials Cuisines of Mexico takes me on a journey through Mexico, a country I plan to visit again in the new future.  Diana Kennedy includes anecdotes describing where she first encountered a dish or praising the Mexican cooks who taught her how to use a special cooking technique.  Her visits to local markets sound a lot more exciting than my grocery buying trips to Super WalMart!

Are you now going to find me in my kitchen, apron tied around my waist, pounding spices in a molcajete like the one pictured below?

Probably not.  Some things in life need to be experienced vicariously. 

Leafing through my new cookbook, I find recipes that are instructive from a cultural standpoint but probably will not ever emerge from my kitchen:   homemade lard (too fattening),  Cuiclacoche con Calabacitas Estilo Querétaro- Corn Fungus with Zucchini (too exotic), or Chiles en Nogada (too complicated with a two and a half page recipe). 

But I am nevertheless inspired to branch out for my grocery shopping and cooking.  El Paso boasts several Hispanic grocery stores with alluring displays of fruits, vegetables and seasonings. 

I could make Chilaquiles de Guanajuato (pp. 12-13) after buying guajillo chiles and tomatillos. If I find unhulled and raw pumpkin seeds, I can attempt a dip with an unusual name, Sikil P'ak (pp. 4-5). Or I can easily find mangoes during the summer season to make a flambéed dessert,  Mangos Flameados, (pp. 435-436).

Knowing my love of books, however, I will probably opt to fix a large glass of hibiscus flower water and sit down to read and daydream of the Mexico I knew in my youth of pristine beaches, tropical foliage, and sumptuous meals served with an ocean view.