Let's Eat Spanish at Home

Rating:
Summary: You get what you pay for?
Review: This is the cheapest of the three budget Spanish cookbooks I decided to compare, seeing just how many Tortillas Espanola a gal can fry up for under $5 (for the instructions, not the ingredients, of course). "Let's Eat" is the worst of the lot. First, there's the offensive cover. (I'm not known as Ms. Politically Correct - if anything, I'm easily wearied by PCs.) But the cover drawing, of a grinning, pop-eyed Spaniard who appears to be on speed, is very irritating. If you can get past this guy, you'll find helpful hints on equipment, cooking methods and ingredients. Especially helpful are the hints re: using No. 2 sized eggs and to "follow one set of measurements only." I'm being a little sarcastic about that last tip; it's necessary because the recipes' ingredients list metric amounts first... and while, thankfully, those proportions are followed, after a slash, with U.S. standards., it's one of this book's brow-wrinklers. Recipes like the one for Fried Squid don't even give amounts for the flour or oil to be used. And if you're planning on using this book while traveling, the instructions for various types of ovens ("gas mark 5") might be helpful. If you're going to be staying in the states, however, it's wasted space, and requires careful reading in order not to confuse centigrade with farenheit. I doubt I'd ever try the recipes for quail, chicory or venison, but then, I lived in Andalucia and am more interested in classic Andaluz concoctions. Like the other budget books, "Let's Eat Spanish" doesn't print the dishes' Spanish names, so someone who's just returned from Spain, or a Spanish restaurant, must try and divine whether any of these recipes can recreate the desired gastratory experiences. In its defense, this book gives more recipes than the other two cheapies, including an index, sauce section, and sherry explanation. Ah, maybe that sherry focus explains the rabid-looking cover caricature! This paperback is part of the British "Let's Eat" series, and enticements like the back cover's "Your Spanish holiday on a plate!" refer to the herds of English people who vacation in Spain (and are more likely to like this book). Unfortunately, that contact seems to have fostered a fair amount of condescension - remember Manolo, the waiter who functions as Fawlty Towers's scapegoat?