Yucatan Cuisine

The Tastes of Mexico's Culinary Wonderland

Yucatan cuisine is the brave new world for Mexican cooking enthusiasts. Of course, not "new" in itself: there are recipes here that go back further than recorded history. But to many outside the region, they will be delightfully new and surprising.

If we take the Yucatan peninsula as a whole, it's clear that nowhere else in Mexico, except Mexico City itself, offers the same variety of tastes and cuisines. In an hour one can travel from the glittering eateries of the Hotel Zone in Cancun to a colonial fondita in Valladolid. Go a little further afield, and you'll find the true local cuisine, the traditional food of the Mayas, prepared as it was long before Cortez stepped ashore.

This page begins with cookbooks featuring Mayan and Yucatecan cooking. Over time we will build our collection of regional titles, but also include some of the classics of Mexican cooking such as the superb books from Diana Kennedy. We wish you many happy hours digging through these pages and discovering the delicacies within.

And, as always, we invite you to share what you know: your favorite cookbook titles, recipes, cooking tips, sources for ingredients and supplies...whatever would be helpful and interesting to others. Just use the box at the bottom of the page or click here.

Our first entry is the new Mayan Cuisine: Recipes from the Yucatan Region This colorful addition to our Mexican cookbook library is full of great regional specialties including, Conchinita Pibil, baked chayote squash pudding, grilled shrimp Yucatan style, and tamales wrapped in banana leaf. There are more elaborate dishes too and holiday meals for Christmas or El Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. The book is replete with mouthwatering photographs, and lists of sources for those hard-to-find ingredients.

Publisher's Weekly states: "Those interested in expanding their cultural and culinary horizons will find this collection both educational and all-inclusive."

We agree! For the beginner there are plenty of simple but tasty preparations. But if you're like us, and enjoy a challenge in the kitchen, there is more than enough here to keep you happy... not to mention all those who will be crowding around your table.

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