Simple's Uncle Sam: With a New Introduction by Akiba Sullivan Harper

Simple's Uncle Sam: With a New Introduction by Akiba Sullivan Harper
Average customer rating:

Langston Hughes gets 5 stars for this!!

Simple's Uncle Sam: With a New Introduction by Akiba Sullivan Harper
Langston Hughes
Manufacturer: Hill and Wang
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Hughes, Langston | African American | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Return of Simple

The Best of Simple (American Century Series, Ac39)

The Ways of White Folks: Stories

The Short Stories of Langston Hughes

ASIN: 0809086816

Book Description

Langston Hughes's most beloved character comes back to life in this extraordinary collection

Langston Hughes is best known as a poet, but he was also a prolific writer of theater, autobiography, and fiction. None of his creations won the hearts and minds of his readers as did Jesse B. Semple, better known as "Simple." Simple speaks as an Everyman for African Americans in Uncle Sam's America. With great wit, he expounds on topics as varied as women, Gospel music, and sports heroes--but always keeps one foot planted in the realm of politics and race. In recent years, readers have been able to appreciate Simple's situational humor as well as his poignant questions about social injustice in The Best of Simple and The Return of Simple. Now they can, once again, enjoy the last of Hughes's original Simple books.

Customer Reviews:

Langston Hughes gets 5 stars for this!!.......2000-10-30

The life of poverty and discrimination is all about Simple, the character in Simple's Uncle Sam. He goes through everything and tells about it in his short stories. From his ideas for a Negro President to his ideas for an ugly contest instead of a beauty contest, this man's mind comes alive with explicit detail, description, and opinion.

Customer Reviews:

Satisfying Conclusion To the Lighthouse Scene.......2007-01-24

(Contains spoilers from previous volumes) In the previous volume, we witnessed the lighthouse girls kill each other after Yuko Nakagawa was killed from eating her poisoned soup. The one responsible, Yuko, is actually still alive, and has become very emotionally unstable.

Shuya comes face to face with Yuko, only to be shot at, believing he is a "demon boy". Will Shuya be able to tell Yuko what really happened and save her, or will she have her way and kill him?

The art is fantastic as usual, and there's nothing bad to say about the dailogue. I must say the scenes involving Yuko took much longer than they needed (almost 1/2 of the volume), but the rest of the story was fine.

Definately pick this up, especially if you just read 9, for it's an adequate conclusion to the lighthouse segment. It's getting down to the wire, with only 9 students left at the beginning

SUGIMURA FINDS KOTOHIKI.......2006-06-09

After finding his best friend Takako too late and having her die in his arms a couple of volumes back, Sugimura made a vow to find his love interest Kotohiki and protect her from a similar fate. At the beginning of Volume 11 he finally does find her. But things quickly worsen because the cold as ice demon Kiriyama is on their trail, and there is no chance of reasoning with such a monster. Through the use of flashbacks we get insight into Sugimura's character and how he fell for Kotohiki. We also find out about the self-doubt and perceived weakness beneath his martial arts fighter look and the reason why he fears the inevitable battle with Kiriyama.

11 is a pretty weak installment in this series. The flashback sequences in Battle Royale have always been a drawback in my mind and an unwelcome interruption in the main action. But they weren't as obtrusive in the beginning because exposition is what you do in the outset of a story. But here we are close to the end, and the writer is STILL explaining why these characters behave the way they do! I don't want to read pages and pages of the characters chatting about the good old days when in reality every second they spend blabbing increases their chance of getting killed. I would recommend buying Volume 12 along with 11 because this book ends in a cliffhanger ending just as the action gets started.

A TIME TO THINK, A TIME TO KILL.......2006-05-22

After nearly being killed by the calmly psychotic Kiriyama, Shuuya was left in the care of a group of girls who had decided to abstain from the Program. He promises them that there is a way of beating the game, and that they can all retain their humanity instead of descending into mindless murder. He doesn't notice that one of the girls has had a less than healthy reaction to his arrival in the group. Yuko Sakaki, believing wrongly that Shuuya is lying to the girls and is playing the game, tries to poison him. Instead of killing Shuuya, she accidentally kills one of the other girls and what happens next is pretty predictable, seeing how messed up the situation is, even for friends. In a senseless shoot-out, all the girls kill each other, leaving Yuko the only survivor. As Volume 10 begins, Shuuya arrives in the aftermath of the bloodbath to face Yuko.

This volume of Battle Royale is about Shuuya facing up to the fact that his ideals of "people won't play if you just reason with them" and that "everyone has a spark of goodness in them" are put to the test. Shuuya is not a strong character because of his fighting skills. He is strong because he chooses NOT to fight, NOT to kill. So it's going to be interesting to see if he can survive the Program and still remain true to himself. This installment is a more meditative tome that others, because Shuuya finally has time to think, and that's not necessarily a good thing. What does it all mean? He'll have to think about his next move as he makes his way back to Shogo and Noriko, two people he hopes are still alive. The contestant pool is getting awfully small these days.

MITSUKO LETS IT ALL OUT.......2005-12-19

As you can tell from the cover of Volume 8, Mitsuko takes center stage in this volume, with all the bodily assets that she squeeze into it! Mitsuko is always looking for a few nice boys to kill some time....I mean boys to kill and she'll stop at nothing to gain their trust in order to slice their throats with her mini-scythe. The next two unfortunate lucky guys are the complete pre-adolescent loser Yuichiro and the brawn of the outfit Tadakatsu. Mitsuko weasels her way out of the attempted killing of Tadakatsu and gains the trust of Yuichiro and then the mind games begin. Mitusuko's body is on full display as she tries to turn the friends against each other and mark off some more contestants from the Program. But she reveals a bit too much as we find out what caused her to become so warped and morally repugnant.

Battle Royale 8 was a little over the top, bordering on the ultraviolent pornography stereotype of manga in the West. So many bodily fluids are excreted in this installment that you might want to wash yourself with a garden hose after reading it. In some ways you feel that Mitsuko's victims deserve their fate for letting their lust cloud their judgement. I mean while they are too embarrassed to look at her naked body, they have no qualms about killing their fellow students. Not for the squeamish, but still an engaging, if tragic and heart-rending series.

This is the Vol. 11 review page, right...?.......2005-02-05

First, before I say anything else, let me say that I write this review while bearing the ELEVENTH volume in mind, as this page does have the cover of manga volume #11. I don't know why others are reviewing the novel (and why some are moronic enough to rank the movie above the manga/novel)...but whatever.

Have you seen the movie? Or read the novel? Are you willing to pick up only one Battle Royale manga volume among all of the ones you see on the shelves? Then make sure it's this one. Not only because the Kotohiki/Hiroki meeting is a much happier, slightly romantic alternative to the movie/novel one, but because...

Taguchi's art is gorgeously illustrated in these chapters, having some lovely dark and iconic pages of characters, a la Volume 8, to some extent. Volume 8 will still remain as the most chilling book, both in terms of artwork and story, but the word "grotesque" has much more than a minute part to play in this volume as well - it simply carries a less... promiscuous meaning.

This topical, character-focused, gloomy cover art is what all of the covers should be like in my opinion. But the latter ones to the highest degree, seeing as how they're in wind-up, hope-is-gone mode. I've seen the cover art for Volume 13, which is already released in Japan, and it's very disappointing. I was getting sick of constantly seeing boring happy shots of Shuuya - in fact, it's what deterred me from picking up the manga in the first place. However, this kind of cover art is not work that would bring someone completely foreign to Battle Royale into Battle Royale, but it doesn't need to be. Simplistic though this art may be, every little aspect of the front has meaning that is obviously dispersed throughout the book - the cross, symbolizing his "boy scout"-ness, his teardrop-like blood, symbolizing his fight with Kiriyama, his hopeless yet firm look into the light, symbolizing the [self-explanatory], and finally his expression, symbolizing gloom, maybe even repression. That's how I perceived it anyways and while others may not take scrutinize the cover to such a degree, I'm sure many will appreciate this.

Kiriyama easily takes the cake as the coolest (as well as the coldest) character in the manga/novel, despite him being the least developed and the weirdest in the movie. If there's one thing I could have asked more for in the novel it would be more of Kiriyama's backstory. Which we do get, and when you get to the end, there's a cliffhanger that hints at the possibility of there being more...

Kazuo. Kiriyama. He kills, but not out of hatred, odd idealism, sadism, psychosis, stupidity, or the like...but out of a simple and logical willingness to play The Program. No volume released so far makes this clearer, and based on what I've read in the novel, it's not likely to be made more clear in the future; automatically making this and the subsequent book a must-buy for Kiriyama enthusiasts (such as myself).

Giffen's humor also helps a bit. Of course, I'm not entirely positive the guy intended his DBZ, Batman, and Boy Scout remarks&references to be funny, perhaps just a mere "Americanization", but this guy's irreverence towards some of the original lines make me laugh. 'Specially as a longtime DBZ fan.

Here, in this volume, the manga series truly begins the "countdown" segment of Battle Royale. The punks, hoes, conceited morons, and other extraneous (but interesting and fun) characters are gone. They're all gone.

Order this, now. You're a fool if you don't; a fool who deserves his ey-...oops, almost let a spoiler slip =).

Battle Royale [Young Champion C] Vol. 11 (Batoru Rowaiaru) (in Japanese)

Average customer rating:

Battle Royale [Young Champion C] Vol. 11 (Batoru Rowaiaru) (in Japanese)
Taguchi
Manufacturer: Akita Shoten
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic

All Japanese Books | Japanese | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 4253148212

Book Description

In Hellstroms Hive, winner of the 1978 Prix Apollo, Frank Herberts vivid imagination and brilliant view of nature and ecology has never been more evident. America is a police state, and it is about to be threatened by the most hellish enemy in the worldinsects. When the Agency discovered that Dr. Hellstroms Project 40 was a cover for a secret laboratory, a special team of agents was immediately dispatched to discover its true purpose and its weaknessesit could not be allowed to continue. What they discovered was a nightmare more horrific and hideous than even their paranoid government minds could devise.

Customer Reviews:

Agents and Insects.......2007-07-06

This probably worked better as a short story. Hellstrom's Hive is a 1950's, cold war sci-fi tale, nothing more, nothing less. A few grotesque situations in the hive are memorable, the "stumps" for example, but the endless pages of the Agency going through the motions is just plain mind numbing. Pass.

Interesting.......2007-05-30

the blurb is a little misleading, but the book was an overall adventure. It was very action packed and was a real page turner

The Return of a Classic .......2007-05-22

Frank Herbert is one of the all time greatest science fiction writers. He is best known as the author of the Dune series. However, Herbert wrote many other fine works of futuristic literary art. One such is Herbert's 1972 novel Hellstrom's Hive, a new edition of which has just been put out by Tor Books.

Hellstrom's Hive depicts an America that is ruled by a dictatorship. One dissident was a Doctor Nils Hellstrom who created a Project 40 that he persuaded the government to fund, but which Hellstrom was using as a secret laboratory. Upon discovering Hellstrom's duplicity, the dictatorship sends a special team of agents to shut down the lab.

When the agents arrive, they discover that inside the lab there is stuff that places the entire planet's survival in peril. Or it could affect the future evolution of humanity. In any event, it is clear that the mad scientist Dr. Nils Hellstrom has created something truly insane that is nothing short of sick and twisted in its potential effect upon the innocent people of the world.

Readers who try out this forgotten novel will be greatly satisfied by this tale of the future. It is heartily recommended.

Fascinating.......2007-04-06

In Oregon, filmmaking entomologist Nils Hellstrom establishes the human hive in which 50,000 peoplewill live together based on how insects work as a unit regardless of size. The Agency is concerned about the influence of the Hive and has begun spying on the entity especially wanting to steal a metallurgical technology for their personal gain.

Early information proves hard to gather as the agents are easily uncovered by the Hive. Those captured are placed in the dying vats and used as food for the members. Realizing that their first intrusion failed, the Agency sends in a more professional team of experts to learn more about Project 40 and the stunwand.

This is a reprint of an interesting 1980s tale focusing on two societies. Frank Herbert goes deep into the Hive so the audience obtains a discerning look at how humans could behave like the social insects that Nils wants to emulate in order for the members to work together for the common good. Within the Hive, a caste system exists for instance the scientists are out of 1950s B movie monster thrillers with all sorts of physical problems. On the other hand, the Agency remains in the shadows so that the audience knows little about them except their obsession over Project 40 and that they appear to be a secret part of the Feds. Science fiction readers will enjoy the HIVE that wants to spread out and assimilate the Outsiders.

Harriet Klausner

The Hive vs. The Outsiders.......2005-12-01

Core concept: the Hive, led by entomologist and filmmaker Nils Hellstrom, is located in remote Oregon. Population 50,000. They have based their lives and organization on lessons learned from insects. Their dwelling extends far underground.

The conflict: an outside agency, called The Agency, is surveilling the Hive, unaware of the reality and immensity of the Hive. The Agency thinks that Hellstrom has created a new metallurgical process. They hope to discover and leverage the technology for the benefit of those supporting The Agency, though the composition of that group is never detailed.

The Agency sends in several members to spy around Hellstrom's farm. They are captured and put in the vats, which are tanks that Hive members willingly go to at the end of their lives. The purpose of the vats is that these members become food for the rest of the Hive. Needless to say, those captured from The Agency did not willingly go the vats.

So, after this opening, The Agency sends in the "A" team to discover what is really going on.

What is really going on is that Hellstrom's film work is a cover (albeit one to bring in revenue) for Project 40. This is a major weapon system that is an extension of the stunwand, another weapon developed by the Hive scientists. The scientists themselves are pretty cool, with monstrous heads, stunted legs, withered arms, servants to carry them around, and massive intellectual capability.

I'll not go through a blow by blow recap; if it sounds interesting, read it. It is a quick read.

The writing about the Hive is fairly interesting, but never rises to that "this is reaaaally cool" threshold. The writing about the members of The Agency and their lives is booooooooring! Did Herbert mean to be so boring in the details of The Agency?

Project 40 actually only comes into any sort of detail at the very end of the book. The scientists perform a demonstration experiment in which they create a new island in the sea near Japan. How a destructive weapon can be used to create land doesn't make sense, but that is what they do. The story ends in a stalemate between the US government and the Hive, with their Project 40 weapon. Hellstrom's crew has the weapon targeted to destroy several hundred square miles around Washington, DC, if the government attacks the Hive.

The book ends by relaying that because of the destructive potential of Project 40, the Hive had acquired the time and space to continue existing. They would use this time to "swarm" out into the Outsider (their term for normal humans) world in order to assimilate Outsiders and take more of the Earth's surface for the sake of the Hive.

Average customer rating:

Hellstrom's Hive
Frank Herbert
Manufacturer: Nelson Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000FJED18

Product Description

The insects take over the world.

Average customer rating:

Hellstrom's Hive
Frank Herbert
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000JX08SW

Average customer rating:

HELLSTROM'S HIVE
Frank Herbert
Manufacturer: Corgi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000K5RS8W

Average customer rating:

HELLSTROM'S HIVE
Frank Herbert
Manufacturer: New English Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Average customer rating:

Hellstrom's Hive
Frank Herbert
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0552682764

Average customer rating:

Hellstrom's Hive
Frank Hebert
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000RS0AAA

Average customer rating:

Hellstrom's Hive
Frank Herbert
Manufacturer: Nelson Doubleday Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NPUCW8

Average customer rating:

HELLSTROM'S HIVE
FRANK HERBERT
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0553126733

Average customer rating:

HELLSTROM'S HIVE.
FRANK HERBERT
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O5GZXC

Average customer rating:

Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant flavors of a World-Class Cuisine

Que Bueno for Bayless

Complete success

Great recipes, but watch out for publishers errors

The Master of Mexican Cuisine Does Staples and more!

Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant flavors of a World-Class Cuisine
Rick Bayless
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Mexican | Regional & International | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Mexico One Plate At A Time

Mexican Everyday (Recipes Featured on Season 4 of the PBS-TV series "Mexico One Plate at a Time")

Authentic Mexican 20th Anniversary Ed: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico

Salsas That Cook : Using Classic Salsas To Enliven Our Favorite Dishes

The Essential Cuisines of Mexico: Revised and updated throughout, with more than 30 new recipes.

Accessories:

Rick Bayless 12 Inch Skillet With Lid, Salsa

ASIN: 0684800063

Amazon.com

Not since his first book, Authentic Mexican, has there been such an accessible opportunity to learn about real Mexican cooking. Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen offers translations of authentic Mexican dishes that preserve their authenticity. The book opens with 14 salsas, sauces, and seasonings that Bayless calls "cornerstones of Mexican dishes." Other than some chile peppers essential to certain dishes, most ingredients are found in any supermarket. For any less common ingredients, a mail-order source or an easy substitution is provided. This brilliant book is engaging, informative, and inspiring.

Book Description

BURSTING WITH BOLD, COMPLEX FLAVORS, Mexican cooking has the kind of gusto we want in food today. Until now, American home cooks have had few authorities to translate the heart of this world-class cuisine to everyday cooking.

In this book of more than 150 recipes, award-winning chef, author and teacher Rick bayless provides

the inspiration and guidance that home cooks have needed. With a blend of passion, patience, clarity

and humor, he unerringly finds his way into the very soul of Mexican cuisine, from essential recipes and explorations of Mexico's many chiles to quick-to-prepare everyday dishes and pull-out-the-stops

celebration fare.

Bayless begins the journey by introducing us to the building blocks of Mexican cooking. With

infectious enthusiasm and an entertaining voice, he outlines 16 essential preparations-deeply

flavored tomato sauces and tangy tomatillo salsas, rich chile pastes and indispensable handmade

tortillas.

Fascinating cultural background and practical cooking tips help readers to understand these

preparations and make them their own. Each recipe explains which steps can be completed in advance to

make final preparation easier, and each provides a list of the dishes in later chapters that are

built around these basics. And with each essential recipe, Bayless includes several "Simple Ideas

from My American Home"-quick, familiar recipes with innovative Mexican accents, such as Baked Ham with Yucatecan Flavors, Spicy Chicken Salad, Ancho-Broiled Salmon and Very, Very Good Chili.

Throughout, the intrepid Bayless brings chiles into focus, revealing that Mexican cooks use these

pods for flavor, richness, color and, yes, sometimes for heat. He details the simple techniques for getting the best out of every chile-from the rich, smoky chipotle to the incendiary but fruity habanero.

Then, in more than 135 recipes that follow, Bayless guides us through a wide range of richly flavored regional Mexican dishes, combining down-home appeal and convivial informality with simple culinary elegance. It's all here: starters like Classic Seviche Tostadas or Chorizo-Stuffed Ancho Chiles; soups like Slow-Simmered Fava Bean Soup or Rustic Ranch-Style Soup; casual tortilla-based preparations like Achiote-Roasted Pork Tacos or Street-Style Red Chile Enchiladas; vegetable delights like Smoky Braised Mexican Pumpkin, or Green Poblano Rice; even a whole chapter on classic fiesta food (from Oaxacan Black Mole with Braised Chicken, Smoky Peanut Mole with Grilled Quail and Great Big Tamal Roll with Chard with the incomparable Juchitan-Style Black Bean Tamales); and ending with a selection of luscious desserts like Modern Mexican Chocolate Flan with KahIua and Yucatecan-Style Fresh Coconut Pie. To quickly expand your Mexican repertoire even further, each of these recipes is accompanied by suggestions for variations and improvisations.

There is no greater authority on Mexican cooking than Rick Bayless, and no one can teach it better. In his skillful hands, the wonderful flavors of Mexico will enter your kitchen and your daily cooking routine without losing any of their depth or timeless appeal.

Customer Reviews:

Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant flavors of a World-Class Cuisine.......2007-01-14

This is my new favorite cookbook. In addition to the wonderfully flavorful comfort food that is explained step by step as if he is a friend sitting across the table from you, Bayless offers a variety of tips covering types of chiles, where to purchase them, illustrations of each (in case there is no label), what to look for in a mortar and other tools of the trade one might find of interest. Following each recipe are sections that are real time savers: Advance Preparation, Other Chiles You Can Use, Traditional Dishes That use This Essential As A Starting Point, and Simple Ideas From My American Home.

Que Bueno for Bayless.......2006-11-07

Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen cookbook is chock full of fabulous recipes that are easy to prepare with step-by-step instructions accompanied by mouth-watering pictures. It is clear that the author has experience with mexican dishes. His commentary is insightful with a touch of humor. I recommend the book for anyone interested in the culinary delights of the Southland.

Complete success.......2006-05-13

Every recipe I have tried has been a hit with family and friends. People keep asking for "my" recipes.

I even got someone to bring me a large bag of dried peppers from Mexico so I could try all the recipes.

Great recipes, but watch out for publishers errors.......2006-01-08

The recipes are great, but you need to be careful because of what may be publishers errors. I made the "Red Chile Braised Chicken with potatoes & greens" (p314). While preparing it, I noticed there was nothing in the "Essential Sweet-and-Spicy Ancho Seasoning Paste" to make it sweet. I checked another recipe (one of our FAVORITES), the "Chile Glazed Country Ribs" (p380) and saw it contained sugar & honey. I added sugar & honey, adjusting for volume and made a great sweet & spicy seasoning. Definitely try this book for great tasting meals.

The Master of Mexican Cuisine Does Staples and more!.......2005-07-09

`Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen' is restaurateur / PBS show host Rick Bayless' second major book on Mexican cuisine in cooperation with his wife, Deann Groen Bayless, and the first with collaborator, JeanMarie Brownson.

The primary point of view which distinguishes this book from both his earlier `Authentic Mexican' book and his later PBS tie-in, `Mexico, One Plate at a Time' is that it deconstructs major aspects of Mexican dishes by breaking them down into `Essential' recipes and recipes which use these essential preparations as an ingredient.

This has a lot in common with Ming Tsai's technique in his latest book, `Simply Ming', with the difference that while many of Ming Tsai's preparations were of his own devising, Senor Bayless is presenting us with the fact that the Mexican cuisine by its very nature, lends itself to this `modularization'.

Almost all of the essential recipes are sauces and salsas. As Rick explains, the notion of a salsa is much broader to the Mexican mind than it may be to us gringos looking at the notion from the outside. The essential recipes are:

Simmered Tomato-Jalapeno Sauce
Roasted Tomato-Jalapeno Salsa from the Stone Mortar
Chopped Tomato-Serrano Salsa
Chopped Tomato-Habanero Salsa
Simmered Tomato-Habanero Salsa
Quick Cooked Tomato-Chipotle Sauce
Simmered Tomatillo-Serrano Sauce
Roasted Tomatillo-Serrano Salsa
Roasted Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa
Sweet and Spicy Ancho Seasoning Paste
Sweet and Smoky Chipotle Seasoning Salsa
Bold Pasilla Seasoning Paste
Simmered Guajillo Sauce
Roasted Poblano Rajas with Seared White Onions and Herbs
Garlicky Achiote Seasoning Paste
Corn Tortillas

I reproduced all these titles here to give you the best possible sense of what is at the heart of this book. Like the Italian cuisine and its preserved meats, cheeses, pasta and vinegars, the great variety of Mexican cooking is based on a few essential ingredients and the most important ingredient family, the dried chile and corn flour, came about, like Italy's meats and cheeses, from the need to preserve important ingredients from spoilage.

If this book were nothing more than these recipes plus the dishes which can be built from them, it would be a great book of recipes, but not quite the `IACP Cookbook of the Year' winner from the Julia Child Cookbook Awards. Each recipe is presented with a variety of different methods, mostly based on alternatives between using the Mocajete (volcanic stone mortar), using the food processor, or using the blender. I give enormous credit to Bayless for not encouraging us to immediately going out and ordering ourselves a Mocajete since they are both rather expensive and (authentic versions are) difficult to find. While I am something of an atavistic cook, I may have been inclined to search one out anyway, but Bayless confession that the modern appliances are quite satisfactory in most applications leaves me satisfied with the equipment I already have.

In addition to the richly detailed and annotated recipes, there are terrific sidebars on ingredients and methods. This is the first place I have read that there is an important difference in taste between the yellow and the white onion, and that the white onion is preferred for Mexican dishes, unless otherwise specified. Senor Bayless also makes it clear that the Habanero and the Scotch Bonnet are two different plants, and identifies those features that distinguish one from the other. Note that the level of heat is NOT one of the things that separate the two fruits.

The remainder of the recipes fall into all the usual categories, with a few Mexican specialities. These are:

Salads and Other Starters
Light and Hearty Soups
Tacos, Enchiladas, and other Casual Fare
Vegetable, Bean, Rice, and Egg Dishes
Classic Fiesta Food
Main Dishes
Desserts
Wine and Margaritas

As egg dishes are one of my favorite criteria for judging a cookbook, I looked at these more carefully than the others and found more than just your usual omelets, scrambles, and fried eggs with Mexican sauces and Fritos. Mr. Bayless' version of Huevos a la Oaxaquena gives us an egg cooking method which I have not seen in any French cookbook, although the result is not too different from scrambled eggs cooked hard rather than the French preferred moist result.

One section that caught my eye was the recipes for moles (in Classic Fiesta Food). The first two recipes required 28 and 27 different ingredients respectively and the procedures for both took three pages of text. Fortunately, aside from the stock, none of the ingredients required a lot of additional preparation, but, I can easily see why moles are relegated to recipes for special occasions.

I wish I could say that Mr. Bayless' books, especially this award winning volume, were the best sources for Mexican recipes, but he has strong competition from Ms. Diana Kennedy. I have reviewed several of her books, and I suspect that if you simply want good Mexican recipes, Ms. Kennedy may have the edge, but go with Mr. Bayless if you have an interest in what it is that makes the Mexican cuisine tick.

You may have noticed Mr. Bayless little trade paperback on Salsas, which have a strong resemblance to some of the material in this book. Some reviewers believe the salsa book is lifted from this volume. This is not true. The approach is the same in both books, but the names of the salsa recipes in the two books do not exactly coincide. And, the salsa book has the added feature of giving the same recipe in several different sizes, which is simply great for entertaining and a real Mexican food junkie.

This may be the best of Mr. Bayless books to get first. His writing is better than in `Authentic Mexican' and he covers more dishes than in `One Dish at a Time'.

Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant Flavors of a World-class Cuisine

Average customer rating:

Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant Flavors of a World-class Cuisine
Rick Bayless
Manufacturer: Scribner Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N75QR2

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books