Cook Real Mexican - A Love Letter to Mexican Food A beginner's guide to what is Real Mexican food and how to make it. 186 pages, 34 pages of information on ingredients, equipment, and techniques, 133 recipes, 280 color images. About this item 8 ¿" x 11" format. Printed on 128lb heavy matte paper and saddle stitched by section. The book comes with a full color dust jacket, a 4x8" bookmark. Included on the bookmark is a handy Scoville heat map. The book is shrink wrapped for additional protection. Shipped in a sturdy protective box. A conversation starter on your shelf or coffee table. More than just a collection of recipes, this book is meant to inform as much as instruct. Some extracts about the food.... "It is commonly accepted that Mexican cuisine is the result of the fusion of three separate cuisines: Indigenous, Spanish, and French. The first Mexican cookbook "El Cocinero Mexicano" (The Mexican Chef) was written in 1831, just a few years after the end of the Spanish rule was compiled by an anonymous author and relied heavily on French culinary methods and principals". "Contrary to public belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day but the commemoration of May 5, 1862, which was the day that a smaller and less well-equipped Mexican army led by General Zaragoza forced France to surrender the city of Puebla, thus ending the first French occupation". A little preview about the Chiles section.... "So, is it chili, chilli or chile? The common Spanish spelling in México is chile and so for me, only chile is used in this book. NOTE: Chile in México is a sauce or a pepper, it is not the ground beef mixture with canned tomatoes and kidney beans that has assumed the name north of the border and popular on hot dogs". There are recipes for chiles in its own section and these sauces are holy ground in Mexican cuisine, they are revered and indispensable and there are sometimes heated discussions about whose grandmother (abuela) makes the best mole, chile verde, or chile rojo. Chile peppers trick our brain into thinking we are being burned. A chemical called capsaicum is found in virtually all capsicum peppers and it triggers the release of a protein called TRPV1 whose job it is to sense heat, whether from a hot pan or a hot chile. This protein tells the brain something is hot, and the brain sends a jolt of pain to the area, in this case your mouth".