cover image Manhattan Chili Co Southwest-American Cookbook: A Spicy Pot of Chiles, Fixins', and Other Regional Favorites

Manhattan Chili Co Southwest-American Cookbook: A Spicy Pot of Chiles, Fixins', and Other Regional Favorites

Michael McLaughlin. Crown Publishers, $15 (120pp) ISBN 978-0-517-56317-5

Cooks who like their food hot and spicy will appreciate this good-natured and comprehensive chili guide. McLaughlin (coauthor of The Silver Palate Cookbook, co-owner and chef at the Manhattan Chili Co. restaurant in New York City, offers 10 hearty chili recipes that reflect ""widely differing philosophical approaches'': i.e., Numero Uno (the slightly sweet taste of pork, tomato juice and cinnamon is offset by garlic), the Real McCoy (beanless, tomatoless, classic Texas chili), green chili with pork (from New Mexico and Arizona, with Native American origins), lamb chili on a bed of jalapeno hominy (Cincinnati-style chili that reflects the Greek and Bulgarian origins of the founders of two leading chili parlors in that city) and vegetarian and seafood varieties. There are also appetizers, accompaniments and home-style desserts, chili combinations, other Southwestern recipes, a directory of chili periodicals and societies and mail-order sources. Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book Club alternate; author tour. (October 7p Robinson, wine correspondent of the London Sunday Times, illuminates a largely ignored aspect of wineampelography, or the science of vine description. Thus, she sets out here to examine grape varieties, the places where they grow and how they taste. The quality and breadth of Robinson's scholarship are apparent in the detailed maps of wine-producing areas of the world, each coded with vine types, that are at the heart of the book. The nine ``classic'' varieties are explained in extraordinary depth, and the 29 ``major'' types are covered in only slightly less detail. This material is surprisingly interesting and readable in light of the great mass of information provided. Not all wine enthusiasts will wish to delve this deep; those who do so will be rewarded with a wealth of knowledge not readily available elsewhere. Illustrations. (October 13)