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Title: A tasty tour of the Southwest
Review: Dent has assembled a wide-ranging collection of Southwestern recipes, and his discussions of their history and derivation are often excellent. He's a pleasant writer to read, and even if you're not a "serious" cook the book is highly educational. His instructions are usually clear, although sometimes they're buried in a matrix of anecdotes that makes them difficult to follow. However, if you're looking for Santa Fe cooking as done by a native's abuelita (granny), this isn't quite it: some of the recipes bear little or no relation to the "standard" version. For instance, he tells you how to make carne adovada with pork chops, but here it's usually prepared as a stew of pork meat and red chile. And how can he discuss beans without mentioning "epazote," an herb widely grown in the Southwest and used as a mild seasoning and (ahem) anti-gas agent? In general, this is the best book I know of on Santa Fe cooking, but it's not 100% authentic.
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