Hola Mexico!

Laura Anhalt’s New Cookbook is Drawing Travelers to Homeland

Laura Anhalt moved to Buffalo, NY from Mexico City 11 years ago. En route to Canada with her husband and children, she discovered the City of Good Neighbors and decided to stay, raise her family and develop her English writing skills.

Last year she published her first cookbook Mexican Flavors: A Journey Inspired by the Folklore and Traditions of Mexican Cuisines. Over 300 pages are chock-full of ancient recipes, beautiful full-color photographs, and stories that make it more than just a collection of dishes to serve at the dinner table; it really is a love story to family, tradition and culture.

“I found it was hard to write about the past, especially family traditions but when I started to write, I realized these stories needed to be told to my four children," Anhalt said. "Food is apart of those tales.”

Starting with four different, canvas-bound journals, one for each of her children, Anhalt began Mexican Flavors with handwritten notes. From a free-spirited daughter, to a son that is proud of his heritage, and a youngest child that is a traveler like her, Anhalt picked recipes she knew they would have a strong connection to.

“One of my daughters is like a flower, gentle. I have a son that has a strong connection to the motherland, he tends to find Mexico in everyone; and he likes chiles, tacos and salsa, so of course they can be found in the book,” Anhalt said. “My youngest likes and finds excitement in new culture and food.”

Black Mole Poblano with Chicken or Turkey is a dish for All Saints Day; Rice with Vanilla, Fried Mashed Bananas, Raisins, and Rum for a side dish; Red Salsa made in a Molcajete; Avocado Stuffed with Pork Rind Salad, and also find a recipe for a Mexican Wedding Cake under Sweet Delicacies and Desserts.

Foodies, cooks and those that love Mexican food and culture aren’t the only ones picking up Mexican Flavors. After a family friend, who is the former Secretary of Tourism in Mexico, got a hold of the hardcover book, she showed it to former colleagues. From one hand to another, a copy of the book will soon be found in every Mexican embassy in the world.

“Some of these recipes are 2,000 years old; you flip the tortillas the very same way today,” Anhalt said. “Combined with modern day customs, Mexican Flavors is about faith and humanity, and now it has the potential to touch lives.

“It’s not bound by just food or tradition, but family stories that travel . . . I am so happy.”

Mexican Flavors: A Journey Inspired by the Folklore and Traditions of Mexican Cuisines is available wherever fine books are sold.