Winner, James Beard Foundation Best Cookbook of the Year Award, 2015 James Beard Foundation Best International Cookbook Award, 2015 The Art of Eating Prize for Best Food Book of the Year, 2015 The Yucatán Peninsula is home to one of the world's great regional cuisines. With a foundation of native Maya dishes made from fresh local ingredients, it shares much of the same pantry of ingredients and many culinary practices with the rest of Mexico. Yet, due to its isolated peninsular location, it was also in a unique position to absorb the foods and flavors of such far-flung regions as Spain and Portugal, France, Holland, Lebanon and the Levant, Cuba and the Caribbean, and Africa. In recent years, gourmet magazines and celebrity chefs have popularized certain Yucatecan dishes and ingredients, such as Sopa de lima and achiote, and global gastronomes have made the pilgrimage to Yucatán to tantalize their taste buds with smoky pit barbecues, citrus-based pickles, and fiery chiles. But until now, the full depth and richness of this cuisine has remained little understood beyond Yucatán's borders. An internationally recognized authority on Yucatecan cuisine, chef David Sterling takes you on a gastronomic tour of the peninsula in this unique cookbook, Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition. Presenting the food in the places where it’s savored, Sterling begins in jungle towns where Mayas concoct age-old recipes with a few simple ingredients they grow themselves. He travels over a thousand miles along the broad Yucatán coast to sample a bounty of seafood; shares “the people’s food”at bakeries, chicharronerías, street vendors, home restaurants, and cantinas; and highlights the cooking of the peninsula’s three largest cities—Campeche, Mérida, and Valladolid—as well as a variety of pueblos noted for signature dishes. Throughout the journey, Sterling serves up over 275 authentic, thoroughly tested recipes that will appeal to both novice and professional cooks. He also discusses pantry staples and basic cooking techniques and offers substitutions for local ingredients that may be hard to find elsewhere. Profusely illustrated and spiced with lively stories of the region’s people and places, Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition is the long-awaited definitive work on this distinctive cuisine.Table of Contents: Acknowledgments How to Use This Book Introduction: ¡Explora Yucatán! Part One: The Yucatecan Market Overview Index to Ingredients Part Two: The Maya Heartland A Natural Continuum The Monte The Milpa The Solar Part Three: Fertile Shores Celestún Sisal Progreso San Crisanto San Felipe Tulum Punta Allen Part Four: The People's Food La Panadería La Chicharronería Comida Callejera La Cocina Económica La Cantina and el Restaurante Familiar Part Five: The Urban Matrix Empire Building Campeche Mérida Valladolid Part Six: The Pueblos Felipe Carrillo Puerto: Nectar of the Gods Hunucmá: Buried Foods Kanasín: Nexus of Yucatecan Tacos Lerma: A Feast for Kings Maní: Inquisition to Transformation Motul: Garnishing History Oxcutzcab: Land of Oranges and Chocolate Pomuch: Villa of Bakeries Temozón: The Ethereal Essence of Smoke Tetiz: The Sweetest of Pueblos Tizimín: Cowboy Country Pantry Staples Recados / Xa’ak’ / Seasoning Blends Frijoles / Bu’ul / Beans Salsas / Sauces Other Staples Basic Techniques About Maize and Masa Arroz / Rice Basic Preparation Techniques Working with Chiles Preparing Meats for Cooking The Ethereal Essence of Smoke Resources Bibliography Photo and Drawing Credits Index to Recipes General Index