Dos Caminos Mexican Street Food: 120 Authentic Recipes to Make at Home

by Ivy Stark, Joanna Pruess

Street food, the heart and soul of Mexico's diverse culture, goes gourmet—try the best recipes from the beloved Dos Caminos restaurants at home! After twenty years of traveling throughout Mexico, Chef Ivy Stark became enchanted by the colorful, tasty native foods and was determined to bring them to America. From stylish couples enjoying beef tacos at a café to day laborers standing at a counter over a paper plate filled with carnitas, everyone loves this delicious, accessible cuisine.

While the bright, robust flavors of Mexican cooking have tempted taste buds north of the border for decades, only recently has the country’s lesser-known street food filtered onto the American table via California and the Southwest. Versatile and simple, these dishes can be enjoyed as a quick nibble or as part of an elegant meal. Stark introduces both beginners and skilled cooks to such traditional foods as Mexico City corn, smoked fish tostadas, plan-tain croquettes, and much more. Stark offers time-saving techniques and make-ahead suggestions, as well as tips for working with Mexican seasonings and produce like chilies and plantains.
100 full-color photographs

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Sandra Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to receive this book and dove right in only to come up with mixed feelings. I was looking for a cookbook filled with authentic street food from Mexico. There are definitely a lot of those recipes in this book, but some fell woefully short such as the Cornmeal Biscuits with Cheddar and Chipotle that the author clearly states were based on biscuits she loved growing up so she made a "Mexican" version. There are many dishes in here that are definitely NOT street food, and that made this book a little disappointing.

The other issue I had with this book is some of the ingredients it calls for. Sea urchin roe, epazote (I had to look this one up. It's a hard to find spice.), huitlacoche (a corn fungus--seriously!) and goat meat are definitely not readily available in most of the United States, so that dropped my rating a bit, too.

There are some lovely recipes in here that are great. I'm a sucker for the Mexico City-Style Street Corn and I love the Jicama, Orange and Apple Salad and Roasted Chicken Flautas.

Go into this book with your eyes open, and I'll think you'll find lots to enjoy. This book is full of lovely photographs and interesting information and some great recipes--just not all of them are actually "Mexican Street Food".

I received a copy of this book from Skyhorse Publishing for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

“Dos Caminos Mexican Street Food: 120 Authentic Recipes to Make at Home” by Ivy Stark with Joanna Pruess is a cookbook filled with recipes, anecdotes, and pictures of various dishes based on adaptations of street food of Mexico. Apparently, most of these dishes were/are served at the Dos Caminos restaurants and some of the pictures show the prepared item. There are some directions that aren’t as clear to me, which I think may be presuming more culinary skill than I have, and there are pretty exotic ingredients for some of the dishes. Some of the step-by-step pictures are a little too small for my tastes but it was definitely interesting to read the descriptions of the various cultures and foods of Mexico and their influence on the dishes. It was mind-boggling to see pictures of the piles of dried chiles or the lists of fruits and a delicious guided tour through fascinating dishes ranging from breakfast through dessert, in addition to exotic drinks that can be made from a minimal number of ingredients.


A copy of this title was provided to me for review, a version of which was submitted to Night Owl Reviews.

[Mariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of hard to find ingredients in this book and a lot of recipes that require other recipes listed in the book as well. The pictures were pretty but I’m not sure all the foods listed are Mexican Street Foods as some she mentions that she made the recipe up herself based upon her mother’s dishes, so unless she was a street chef herself I find this title a bit misleading. Overall I found this not bad but not great either.

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dos Caminos is a restaurant with several locations in the US. Chef Ivy Stark has done a lot of research into these recipes and many of them sound good, but nearly all are terribly time-consuming and often include 2, 3 or 4 other recipes as components. Ordinary home cooks are unlikely to try these. Who has the time? Also, where would I find avocado leaves?

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alright. Nothing I necessarily want to make at home (especially in the UK where getting the resources is much more difficult and very much not fresh), but certainly things I would love to eat the next time I'm some place that does real Mexican food.

The writing didn't grab me so much, so there was a lot of skimming (but that might have also been due to distracting infant whining at me)

[Lynn Zuniga · Rating 1 out of 5]

No

Much editing with punctuation, spelling and separation of words needed. The recipes are the ho hum boring same ol, same ol.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thorough true Mexican!

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't wait to dig in!! Wonderful food, need to try all of it.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some very good looking recipes. Reads like a travel memoir or history or the area.