Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: If you want to prepare real Mexican food, this book is a must.
Rating: 
Summary: Great learning tool!
Review: Living in Southern California, I've been seeking traditional recipes for those dishes I've enjoyed at restaurants for years. This author makes the tradtional easy for those of us who weren't raised to make tamales or other mexican fare. Every recipe I've tried has been received with cheers by all. Cheers to Bayless and crew for an excellent book. Another interesting aspect of the book is the history behind the recipes. Gave me a new perspective on the dishes I've enjoyed for years.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Guide to a Fascinating Cuisine
Review: Mexican cuisine is difficult not merely because the ingredients are often hard to find, but also because it represents an almost wholly original approach to these ingredients. As a truly indigenous cuisine, it represents an approach to cooking almost totally unfamiliar both to home cooks and classically trained chefs. This is why Bayless' book is such a valuable contribution for those interested in getting away from American interpretations of Mexican food. While he emphasizes traditional recipes, Bayless is not doctrinaire. He also adds contemporary interpretations of classic dishes which at once preserve the authentic quality of the originals, while exploring and incorporating new ingredients. Moreover, he offers more than simple recipes, but also a guide to understanding what it is about traditional Mexican cooking that leads to its unique flavours. This helps inspire substitutions for ingredients not readily available and greater skills in creating notoriously difficult to reproduce Mexican standards like refried beans or ceviche. If I have any complaints about this book, they come down to the following. There are relatively few recipes in the book, which is largely a function of the explanations I endorsed earlier. There are also many recipes in this book which are quite similar to dishes provided in his other cookbooks. Somebody already familiar with Bayless' work might find this somewhat frustrating. However, as a first book on Mexican cooking, I can think of none better placed to produce a better meal. This is an expensive book, but one that is nicely adorned and marvelously designed. I would recommend it to any seriously interested in coming to knwo one of the finest cuisines in the world.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the books by Rick Bayless
Review: Mexico One Plate at a Time has many easy recipes for beginnersyet contains tons of tips and tricks in the question and answersection for experts. Overall the recipes seem to be a little simplerand stripped down than those in Bayless' first two books, which isprobably good for beginners as well as for those of us who are timestarved. For anyone who has ever tasted the famous duck tacos atFrontera Grill there is a similar recipe in the new book (I am on myway to the store to get a duck now!). Another great thing about thebook is that you can find a recipe for any mood that you might be in -the recipes range from causal to dressy and each dish has atraditional and contemporary version.
Rating:
Summary: Good eating!
Review: My husband and I love Rick Bayless and enjoyed his show. Whereas there are some dishes in the book we wouldn't eat, we do love this cookbook. Of course, I doubt there's anyone out there who would eat every single recipe from a book so not eating every dish from this one is certainly no complaint! If you love Mexican, this is a definite must have!
Rating:
Summary: Good eating!
Review: My husband and I love Rick Bayless and enjoyed his show. Whereas there are some dishes in the book we wouldn't eat, we do love this cookbook. Of course, I doubt there's anyone out there who would eat every single recipe from a book so not eating every dish from this one is certainly no complaint! If you love Mexican, this is a definite must have!
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Authentic - Just like we remember.
Review: My wife grew up in Oaxaca, and last summer we went to Mexico for three weeks of Vacation. So when she brought this book home from our local library, I was interested in seeing if Bayless had indeed captured the flavor of the country. From the first recipe we tried, it was apparent that this was not just another cutesy Tex-Mex cookbook. My congratulations on a job well done. This book is so authentic, that we even recognized some people we met during our stay. If you realllllllly want to taste Mexico without actually going there, prepare yourself for a treat, this is the definitive work on the subject of "real" Mexican cuisine. We cannot go without this book for extended periods, so now we own a copy instead of taking our chances at the library. I have one complaint however. He doesn't tell us where in this country we can get those watermelon sized Papayas that we found in the Mitla and Tlacolula markets.
Rating:
Summary: An Obvious Labor of Love for the Author
Review: Obviously a labor of love for Mr. Bayless. This book is inviting to use, I think, because of its user-friendly lay-out, the stories, illustrations and photographs, and, of course, the wonderful, wonderful recipes. Pinching pennies is my way of life so I rarely plunk down $$ for a new cookbook. But I did plunk down lots of pennies for this book and I have no regrets!
Rating: 
Summary: You'll need some free time to try these recipes...
Review: Overall I think this is a good book and devotes a great deal of time discussing the history of Mexican cooking. The author is very thorough and offers detailed instructions and tips for sucessful dishes. However, I was slightly disappointed by the complexity of both the recipes and ingredients. There isn't a single "simple" meal in the entire book. This cookbook is most appropriate for the true Mexican food connoiseur. It is well written and thoughtful - but be prepared to spend some time in the kitchen!
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous, authentic and innovative
Review: Rick Bayless does a great job of staying true to authentic Mexican cooking. He includes his own contemporary recipes, but first he shows you the traditional ones. His anectotal stories remind me of my mom's stories of her childhood in Mexican-influenced San Antonio, and it brings back memories of good home cooking. By the way, if you're brave enough to make your own corn tortillas, his method is the best I've seen so far. It was very easy to master. I've made the queso fundido twice in 2 weeks and the chilaquiles once, and even my husband (Pennsylvanian by birth and totally foreign to this cuisine) loved them. I liked the book so much I'm ordering a copy for my mother as a birthday gift.
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