By Linda Gassenheimer, Atlantic Monthly Press, $27.50, 270 pages
“The Flavors of the Florida Keys explores the historic roots with down-home fare and also captures the new more sophisticated culinary treasures.”
If your interests are in American regional cookbooks, this recipe collection from the Florida Keys could be a useful addition should you have none yet from that region. Yet you may be disappointed in the recipes that are neither original, nor very exciting. Each recipe is from the kitchen of one of the food establishments in the Keys, from beachside shacks through bars to high-end resorts. The recipes were supplied by owners or chefs and tested by the author. They are placed on a single or two facing pages for convenience, are well written and easy to follow. They are not difficult recipes and ingredients are mostly readily available though this is not scratch cooking. Each recipe’s head note describes the origin of that recipe, some history and anecdotes about both people and the place. The printing is monochrome with green ink highlighting titles. Otherwise the only illustrations are 16 pages of photos bound in the center.||//The Flavors of The Florida Keys// begins with a good introduction of the Florida Keys, including history. The index is not very good (Herbal Spiny Lobster under H) but well cross referenced.
Reviewed by George Erdosh,cm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=portbookrevi-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0802119530&IS1=1&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&fc1=000000<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr” style=”width:120px;height:240px;” scrolling=”no” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ frameborder=”0″>