Paladares: Recipes from the Private Restaurants, Home Kitchens, and Streets of Cuba by Anya von Bremzen

Paladares: Recipes from the Private Restaurants, Home Kitchens, and Streets of Cuba Reviews

• 
  Helaina Thompson

  Hell. Yes.
• 
  ☘Tara Sheehan☘

  Photographs and art inspired by the Cuban culture greet and entice you to flip the pages of this delicious, mouthwatering cookbook. It is so much more than a bunch of recipes, it is a journey into an entire country.
  
  An introduction filled with historical background to help you appreciate the people and the food along with recipe that have both their name in Spanish and English further entrench you into the mindset needed to recreate these delectable dishes. You’re also treated to inspiring and true behind the scene stories that add a sense of family to the book.
  
  The author did a wonderful job of creating this feeling of being in the kitchen listening to stories being told as you can imagine the fragrance of food wafting around you.
  
  Beautiful and realistic looking photographs of the dishes are interspersed to help give you a better idea of what your creation should look like.
  
  Don’t let the simple cover deceive you because inside is a true piece of art that will have you running to the grocery store and busting your budget to try out as many of these as possible.
  
  The instructions are easy to follow, have tips along the side for additional info and include amounts in cups, grams and mls so no conversion fun is needed.
• 
  Leah Hanley

  Wonderful book. A real armchair traveler! Great photography of the country, including portraits of chefs. The food is showcased, of course, but human interest pieces are spread throughout that talk about Cuba’s tumultuous political history and how it affected/affects the people and food culture. The recipes are flavorful and easy to follow. Some use ingredients that are difficult or impossible to find in most parts of the U.S., but where substitutes can be used it is stated. Plus, different parts of the world grow different produce, and it’s not going to be an authentic cookbook if that fact is ignored for the sake of readers in other countries. But what I especially like about those recipes is that the flavor and texture qualities of produce we don’t use in the U.S. are described so that you can try to find your own substitutes if you really want to. Overall I love this book!
• 
  Victoria Peipert

  Where to even begin with this book! It's the perfect harmony of cuban culture, the history of food in cuba, intimate portraits of some landmark restaurants, engrossing images, and mouthwatering recipes. I admire the skill of this author to be able to put such a lovely piece of work together that really makes cuba and its food culture shine. I highly recommend this book to any foodie, chef, and cubaphile (is that even the right term?)
• 
  Vnunez-Ms_luv2read

  Very good recipe book with pictures of cuisine that is Cuban influenced. Not only do you get mouth-watering recipes you also get culture and history. Recipes are easy to follow and have different degrees of difficulty, but not so difficult it will have you not wanting to attempt. I actually did a few dishes and I must say not bad for my first attempt. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return of my honest review.
• 
  roxi Net

  Despite not being a huge fan of the cover, this book is absolutely beautiful. The photos of Cuba really bring the book (and the recipes) to life. Being familiar with Caribbean/Cuban food, I was happy to see some of my favorite recipes, mixed with new ones. The chef stories were incredibly interesting (cooking for Castro!) and show the diversity of Cuban food. A great book for food-lovers!
• 
  Mary

  Love this book. I was looking for a recipe book with Cuban recipes and instead I found this book that told me about the history of food and restaurants in Cuba and how different foods have been used and adapted and introduced me to chefs and cooks that have made Cuba their home. A great read. I off to make some of the recipes now.
• 
  Jill Blevins

  The great and magnificent Anya von Bremzen wrote a Cuban cookbook, and that's great and everything but her memoir writing haunts me too much to care. So I flipped through it, thought, "that sounds good," and returned it. Bad fit, my fault.
• 
  Sabrina

  This book is probably the best cookbook i have ever owned. I have made at least 10 of the recipes and will work my way thru to make many more!
• 
  Crowleybob Crowley

  Great account of restaurants and chefs! I used it to plan meals for my trip to Cuba.
• 
  Liquidlasagna

  Pumpkin Soup with Blue Cheese
  
  not quite for old cuba traditionalists
• 
  Kyle Robertson

  This cookbook contains recipes inspired by the private restaurants of Cuba. But this is so much more than just a cookbook! It chronicles the recipes, stories, and images of the new Cuban cuisine. The introduction gives an interesting history of how paladares came about in Cuba. Paladares are small, homegrown eateries that are officially licensed by the government to sell food to locals and tourists. This lengthy cookbook contains delicious recipes that are sure to please your taste buds. There is beautiful full color photography of the Cuban towns and landscape, as well as pictures of each dish. You will also find spotlights on chefs and restaurants sprinkled throughout the book. Kudos to the author for putting together such a fascinating book that is rich with history, amazing photography, and mouthwatering recipes.
  
  The beginning of the book has a table of contents to make recipes easier to find. There is also an alphabetical index at the end of the book. Each recipe comes with an explanation or story about the dish, as well as a full list of ingredients and cooking instructions. The ingredients for the recipes are not that exotic and should be relatively easy to find. The categories of recipes are as follows:
  1. Snacks and Appetizers
  2. Soups
  3. Vegetables and Roots
  4. Rice, Beans, and Tamales
  5. Fish and Seafood
  6. Chicken, Duck, and Rabbit
  7. Meat
  8. Sweets
  9. Drinks
  
  I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Cuban history, culture, and cuisine. I received this as a free ARC from Abrams, New York on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  RedRobinXXX

  I am reviewing this book for Anya von Bremzen, brams, and NetGalley who gave me a copy of their book for an honest review.
  I wanted to get a copy of this book to review as I wanted to know what a paladare was … and now I know. All the Cuban recipes seemed easy enough to follow, although I have not yet attempted any. Then photos are colourful and looked real, not staged and I liked the inclusion of photographs of the areas. There are a few ingredients I would find harder to source but the majority are readily available.