I do most of the cooking in my house which means I’m the one responsible for coming up with meals that these people will eat. It’s exhausting and I hate it. But! It does give me an excuse to look at cookbooks that I find interesting and sometimes I luck out and find few recipes that I like.
Here are a couple of cookbooks that are both interesting reads and have some tasty recipes inside.
Cook Real Hawai’i by Sheldon Simeon–I guess if you watch Top Chef, you’ll recognize Sheldon’s Simeon’s name. I don’t, so I didn’t. But! As someone who does a podcast about a show that was set and filmed in Hawai’i, I’m naturally curious about things I come across pertaining to the islands. I really like this cookbook because it shows all of the cultural influences on Hawaiian cuisine -Korean, Filipino, Japanese, and Portuguese- and how they come together to form a culture of its own. I haven’t tried too many dishes out of this cookbook, but my favorite is the kimchi dip. You really can put it on anything and I even tried it on Cool Ranch Doritos as suggested. Yep. It works.
I know most of the time you want to skip past the stories to get to the recipes, but Sheldon’s stories in this cook book are definitely worth reading.
Trejo’s Cantina by Danny Trejo–I think we all agree that Danny Trejo is great (if you don’t, you’re wrong) and this cookbook is fabulous. Not only will you find a variety of recipes to satisfy the vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters, as well as quench the thirst of the drinkers and teetotalers, but Danny even takes the time to explain what a cantina is all about and how to best stock yours, including your bar. I haven’t had the time to try as many of the recipes as I’ve wanted, but we did eat a lot of shrimp tostadas during the summer. As it turns out, my life is greatly improved by having access to chipotle lime creama.
Danny’s also got stories and bits of wisdom in this cookbook. Read every word. It’ll make your day.
If you decide to try these cookbooks, I hope you find some recipes you enjoy. And if you end up with food poisoning, I never gave you the shopping list.
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