Two Excellent Mexican Cookbooks for your Kitchen

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Tacos from the Streets of LA.

GuerrilLA Tacos Cookbook

For being on the road as a nomad for over four years there’s been one material item I seem to still collect. Even if it then has to get crammed under a seat in the car for the next destination. That item is cookbooks! I love them. The way they look, the way they feel, and of course what they provide! I’ve recently read and began to incorporate recipes from two great Mexican food themed cookbooks: GuerrilLA Tacos and Ciudad de Mexico. In this article I share a few ideas and recipes from them and hopefully you can add two excellent Mexican Cookbooks to your Kitchen!

Two Excellent Mexican Cookbooks for YOUR Kitchen:

  1. GuerilLA Tacos: Recipes from the Streets of LA by Wesley Avila with Richard Parks III. I purchased this book at Hey There Projects in Joshua Tree California while living there. You can also get it online HERE.

  2. Ciudad de Mexico: Recipes and Stories from the Heart of Mexico City by Edson Diaz-Fuentes.

So many great stories and recipes in the Ciudad de Mexico Cookbook

Six Takeaways from these two books:

  1. Edson’s combination of story and grit combined with recipe really turned the cookbook into more than just recipes. I don’t typically eat meat but I tried Lengua at the local Algoberto’s Taco Shop in Yucca Valley California. I tried it because of his stories from a kid. And the book also made me want to go on a trip to Mexico City as soon as possible!

  2. Why the right combination of lime and raw onion inside of your guacamole is important. What it does to the taste of it and why.

  3. Ajo and Mole are an art. Mainly perfected by older Mexican women it seems :). But this is not just a sauce or an ingredient. These are multi-day concotions that bring together all the tastes of your Mexican meals.

  4. Tortillas, Meat, Salsa. (Or in my case Veggies.) That’s all you need for tacos. Even the cilantro and lime on the sides are not always needed.

  5. The holiday meals, food, and ceremonies around the holidays in the Mexican culture. AND the USA has really made the “Cantinas” a bit different than they used to be in Mexico.

  6. Burritos are much smaller in Mexico and Quesadillas don’t automatically have cheese in them.

Five Recipes from these two books I have begun to use and reformulate:

  1. Calabicitas: Delicata Squash, Onion, Tomato, Cilantro. Plus Rajas. My brother and his partner first worked with these on us but we drifted off of how particular we were. These books have brought us back to that :).

  2. Huevos Divorciados.

  3. Making Tortillas and Making Chips with Masa.

  4. Making a Spicy Tomatillo Verde.

  5. Tortas with a side of Esquites.

My biggest take from these books is the simplicity AND complexity of what it takes to make a few ingredients taste so good. It’s a much more complicated cooking culture and cuisine than they get credit for. Though books like these are slowly debunking the easiness to perfect the recipes of this country.

The second biggest takeaway is how much I love making the items we used to not make. From making the tortillas, chips, salsas, and queso fresco we have ventured out beyond what we used to do. Mexican is no longer just a night out for us but rather a celebration in our own kitchen.

These are two excellent Mexican cookbooks that you can use to incorporate more celebrations in your kitchen while eating clean, healthy, and tasty recipes! Throw back an agua fresca and we’ll see you at the cutting boards.

Do you have either of these books or have any recommendations for other great Mexican cookbooks?

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To Your Health,
Mike