xterminal's review
4.0
Beverly A. Hale, Texistani: Indo-Pak Food from a Texas Kitchen (Yard Dog Press, 1998)
Okay, so let me start off by saying that I'm pretty biased towards any cookbook put out by Yard Dog Press (who are also responsible for the Four Bubbas of the Apocalypse). Especially if that cookbook happens to deal with Indian food, which for my money is the world's finest ethnic cuisine there is. If you add in Texas sensibility in ingredient selection and food preparation, well, you've hit the trifecta. That Yard Dog Press has, to my knowledge, only put out a single cookbook makes this particular conjunction seem almost mystical to me.
When you get right down to it, though, this is a slim (thirty-four pages) book of Indian/Pakistani recipes, and there's not a great deal in it you're not going to find in any more comprehensive subcontinental cookbook. Hale does throw in a few nice twists (less to cater to the American palate than to find ingredients that are slightly more common in America, I think), but probably nothing you wouldn't come up with on your own. Where this book is really valuable is for the cook who hasn't really gotten into subcontinental cooking yet and wants a smattering of recipes from around the menu to try out and see if it's a direction s/he wants to pursue. As an intro to what you can do with this sort of cuisine, and the parameters you'll be working with, it's a lot of fun, and Hale's conversational style when going over the recipes themselves is fun and engaging. I loved it, but whether you will or not will depend on how much you already know about making your own Indian food. *** ½
Okay, so let me start off by saying that I'm pretty biased towards any cookbook put out by Yard Dog Press (who are also responsible for the Four Bubbas of the Apocalypse). Especially if that cookbook happens to deal with Indian food, which for my money is the world's finest ethnic cuisine there is. If you add in Texas sensibility in ingredient selection and food preparation, well, you've hit the trifecta. That Yard Dog Press has, to my knowledge, only put out a single cookbook makes this particular conjunction seem almost mystical to me.
When you get right down to it, though, this is a slim (thirty-four pages) book of Indian/Pakistani recipes, and there's not a great deal in it you're not going to find in any more comprehensive subcontinental cookbook. Hale does throw in a few nice twists (less to cater to the American palate than to find ingredients that are slightly more common in America, I think), but probably nothing you wouldn't come up with on your own. Where this book is really valuable is for the cook who hasn't really gotten into subcontinental cooking yet and wants a smattering of recipes from around the menu to try out and see if it's a direction s/he wants to pursue. As an intro to what you can do with this sort of cuisine, and the parameters you'll be working with, it's a lot of fun, and Hale's conversational style when going over the recipes themselves is fun and engaging. I loved it, but whether you will or not will depend on how much you already know about making your own Indian food. *** ½
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