A taste of the Gulf Coast

A Taste of the Gulf Coast is filled with recipes from the people who inhabit the cities and towns spanning the coast along the Gulf of Mexico - from Key West, Florida, to Brownsville, Texas. These enticing dishes are more than simply southern cooking, Cajun, or Tex-Mex. More than Italian, Greek, or Cuban. These recipes reflect the melting pot of cuisines brought to the Gulf shores by Creole, Mexican, Cuban, West Indian, Dutch, Mexican, Spanish, Greek, Italian, and French. Settlers - and they're pure American. A Taste of the Gulf Coast is an ode to down-home cooking with more than 200 recipes, like Swimmin' Shrimp - spicy shrimp swimming in an irresistible butter sauce (not for the cholesterol conscious); Tarpon Springs Stifado - a pungent, beefy Greek stew; Citrus Baked Turkey - its sweet meat falling off the bones; and Couche-Couche - a traditional Cajun breakfast dish of cornmeal and cane syrup. It may not be fashionable cuisine, but. Its hearty flavors and ethnic accents make us feel warm inside and out.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.