A Taste of Latin America: Culinary Traditions and Classic Recipes from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia,Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico & Venezuela Hardcover – October 3, 2017

This is designed to be an introduction to popular and interesting Latin American cuisine - and at that, it excels. Those few customer reviews that bemoan that some dishes are too obvious or Americanized (e.g. fahitas), misses the point. There are other more advanced or deep dive books for that. For instance, I have "Argentina Cooks!" which explores that cuisine by 10 regions. Here is what this Latin American cookbook DOES HAVE: 1) an expert and experienced author in Patricia Cartin, native of Costa Rica 2) RECIPE SUCCESS: I am an amateur home enthusiast with about 75 coobooks (none like this one) and have cooked over 500 different dishes (I keep a spreadsheet list). I can give a dish an "A" and still never make it again because there is so much frontier out there! I got two other new cookbooks at the same time and have already made 5 dishes out of Latim America (2 and 1 for those other two cookbooks). Jumping into 5 dishes in the first month says something right there. They were: 1) a Brazilian fish stew - solid, 2) cream of avocado soup, superior to my past attempt - will definitely make again, 3) a Peruvian tuna salad that reminded me a bit of a French Nicoise salad since it also had hard boiled eggs, onion and potatoes. Both very tasty, and because it was molded it has PRESENTATION quality. When this Covid-19 thing subsides, it will go to a friends potluck party, 4) cocount rice - great, will make again and 5) ham croquette: I especially like the cooking tecnique and imagine I will try it with shrimp. So 5 recipes: no losers, 4 will be done again (albeit one with shrimp instead) and one presentation quality! For me, that is an impressive score card! 3) BOOK LAYOUT: BTW: I am low vision and am even using special sight assist software to do this email. But my perspective should not be considered as only for my select minority. After all, who does not appreciate crisp black fonts? The INGREDIENTS and DIRECTIONS are in bold and practically always in the same place on the page. The directions are numbered and not wordy. The fonts are clean. Great! The TOC is outstanding. Recipes organized by country. They are listed in both native language and English in bold. Ellipsis dots to the specific page number. It is all laid out there perfectly.It is almost as if the layout artist understood that these items are supposed to convey information!!! In contrast, a Caribbean cookbook I got at the same time felt the need to be cool and used some weird sdriptive calligraphy in a limited TOC and some angular kitchy bambbo font. I had trouble with thesee, even with a strong magnifier. The Latin America cookbook even has thick semi-gloss great feeling sturdy pages to go along with the hardback. Built to last! I can be a tough judge, but this book smoothes my feathers and soothes the soul. Nothing but good.

Please note when you get this book there should be a piece of paper with editorial corrections don't lose it. I love the way the book is laid out by country, the recipes and instructions are clear and look amazing. I will be trying mole soon, I have been told already by a Mexican friend that I will fail, so I am taking that as a challenge. Looking forward to ceviche too. Very good book with many recipes I had not heard of before and it grades them from easy to advanced.

The recipes I think are very user friendly with indicated difficulties, estimated time for completion, and an idealized photograph of the end product. My favorite aspect is that there is a range of Latin American countries represented and while maybe there is not a recipe from each country in Latin America there is a diverse array of recipes from countries in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. From the recipes I have used so far, I am very content with the book.

I found these recipes are very simplified versions of the real thing but very close. It's a great starter for someone who likes to cook and wants to dabble in the cruisine of different cultures. Just be ready to adapt accordingly to your tastes and known techniques. For example, garlic gets bitter. So where it's says to add onions, pepper, and garlic together, I would add the garlic last. I was taught by my grandmother to cook and for many of the dishes with meat or beans she used a slow cooker to tenderize quickly.I was a little disappointed that it didn't cover Dominican Republic, considering that the book mentioned Haiti (which is on the same island as DR not Puerto Rico). Even though DR cuisine overlaps with many other cuisines there was missed opportunity for many popular dishes such as Sancocho, Mangú, mofongo, habichuelas con dulce, pastelon de yuca or pastelon de plátano maduro, carne guisada or pollo guisado, and of course the Hallmark of DR food, habichuelas coloradas.Still, this is a book was well put together. I would annotate it with my cooking tips and pass on to my daughter.

Great pictures with simple and authentic recipes. This book is missing recipes from several South American countries, however. Besides that lack of inclusion it’s a great recipe book.

So I totally bought this for someone and then kept it for myself (I did order a new one for that person) because I saw the recipes and a lot of them are favorite Hispanic dishes I love and some I had never made and wanted to try. I made the Chilean manjar (caramel) and I have tried making a homemade dulce de leche that was thick like in the stores and never found a winning recipe. I found it. Tastes great, homemade and thick! I cannot wait to make more recipes! Glad I decided to keep it!

Bought one for me and one for my friend from Argentina. Recipes look great.

Descriptions of each nation’s cuisines are cursory, with some details missing that surprised me. I also found myself wondering a few times why certain really distinctive dishes were left out—for example, pastel de choclo and cazuela, two well-known Chilean dishes. That said, the pictures are really lovely, and the recipes look like they will yield tasty results. There seem to be between 6 and 9 recipes per country, and if a recipe isn’t listed one place, you might find it in another. For example, tostones (double-fried plantain chips) can be found under Puerto Rico but not under Venezuela.