When we're not cooking Cuban, we love to try other ethnic cuisines and Mexican food is no exception. However, we tend to shun the predominant Tex-Mex style in favor of REAL Mexican cuisine as enjoyed not in the tourist centers, but in the heartland of Mexico.
We're adding Culinary Mexico: Authentic Recipes and Traditions to our small collection of Mexican recipe books. It joins books by Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless as this author has created an excellent and definitive work on Mexican cuisine.
Although we especially liked the recipes from the Yucatan, where many of the flavors echo those found in Cuban cuisine, we were even more impressed with Hoyer's sections on Mexico's Central Crossroads and Colonial Plains and Highlands where the cooking style is pure, simple, and uninfluenced by the tastes of American tourists on a beach vacation. If you want to explore a cuisine that is light years removed from the food dished out at the local Taco Bell, this is a great book with which to begin your journey.
Highly recommended.
The artist who made the roosters famous on Calle Ocho is now doing the same thing for another Miami icon, the flamingo. Sculptor Joaquin Lopez, is doing these most colorful birds for both commercial and residential locations.
The Lopez name has long been known in Miami art circles. Joaquin's father Tony Lopez is the sculptor who did all of the monuments on Monument Boulevard in Little Havana.
It's hard to believe how fast the time has gone by. To all of our many friends and fans who we have met in person and electronically, our sincere wishes for a very happy and prosperous New Year! We couldn't have made it without your support over the years and we promise to keep this going just as long as we can. After all, another 10 years should go by very quickly...
Of course, no pigroast is complete without all of the side dishes: yuca, black beans, rice, a delicious Venezuelan salad, and plenty of fresh Cuban bread.
Tony Mendoza brightened up Glenn's Christmas and sent a little Florida sunshine his way with the gift of a new print, "Cuban Sandwich," one of his latest releases. The print is one of about two dozen in a series that Tony has for sale on his website.If you love Cuban culture or Cuban food -- or you just want to brighten up your northern winter with a colorful work of art that will make you feel some Miami warmth, be sure to check out his online store. As for Glenn, well, he arrives in Miami on January 5 for two weeks. So don't feel too sorry for him when you see him surrounded by all of that snow...
