Cooking with Too Hot Tamales: Recipes & Tips from TV Food's Spiciest Cooking Duo

`too hot tamales' and `Mesa Mexicana' are the two books currently available from the chef / teaching / restauranteur team known as the `too hot tamales' of early Food Network fame, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. They recently went up against Bobby Flay on `Iron Chef America'. Not that it really matters, but I don't remember who won or what the secret ingredient was. What is important is that it was easily one of the most entertaining and memorable `Iron Chef America' episodes, comparable to the very first one featuring Chicago Mexican cuisine expert Rick Bayless and the competition featuring Oriental fusion master, Ming Tsai of `Blue Ginger'. What I do remember is the imprint of the iron on the back of Susan Feniger's blouse and the inventive recipe they did for Scotch eggs. The first impression of both of these books is not inspiring. The layout is ordinary, leaning toward the garish. The photographs are in a grainy black and white and too small to easily make sense of what is happening, not to mention the fact that most are missing captions. In `too hot tamales', it is even difficult to tell which of these two delightful ladies is Mary Sue and which is Susan, from the lack of clear identification on the photographs. The flyleaf of `Mesa Mexicana' clears this up. Mary Sue is the taller with blond hair and Susan is the shorter with dark hair. They also neglect to give a good picture of co-author, Helene Siegel, whose voice seems to be strong in the prefaces and introductions. Based on the strong `Iron Chef America' appearance, I decided to check out the books from this duo, even though their Food Network show was before my time. I figured two gals with this much energy and a strong showing against the indomitable Bobby must have something to say. At the outset, the book `too hot tamales' did not impress, until I got to the chapters on soups. At this point, the authors' observations seemed to come alive. This was not nearly as strong as what I saw in Deborah Madison's recent book on soups, but the comparison showed that Mary Sue and Susan clearly had something important to say. That is not to say that `too hot tamales' is the better book. `Mesa Mexicana' is actually the better of the two for anyone who is not familiar with Mexican cooking. Having determined that these books have something to say, the next big question is why get these books instead one from the heavy hitters of Mexican cuisine, Rick Bayless or Diana Kennedy. For starters, both Bayless and Kennedy's best books are more strongly oriented toward teaching Mexican cooking, either by technique or by region. Milliken and Feniger's books are more for fun, without straying too far from strong roots in genuine Mexican cooking technique. If all you want are some good, snappy recipes without being tied to the grill (as you are with many of Bobby Flay's recipes), Milliken and Feniger may be your best choice. They are certainly your best choice if you are attracted to entertaining with

Mary Sue Miliken and Susan Feniger are two of the top chefs in LA. (And maybe the top female duo.) For those of us who grew up equating Mexican food with Tex-Mex, Miliken and Feniger's inventive take on traditional Mexican cuisine is a revelation. Their "Border Grill" in Santa Monica (4th and Broadway) is a noisy, splashy, foodie haven with superb drinks, a decent wine/beer list, and amazing food. For several years they also produced a fun and informational show on the Food network before that cable network went all-Emeril all-the-time. "Cooking with Two Hot Tamales" captures a lot of recipes and tips from the show. Many of the recipes herein one occasionally sees on Border Grill's menu. The house gucamole recipe is almost worth the price of the book on its own!As a cookbook, Two Hot Tamales is interesting, has an attractive layout, and, by the minimal standards of the genre, is well-written. Unlike their Mesa Mexicana, which I recomend only for the hobbyist chef with access to a decent Mexican grocer and time on his/her hands, Two Hot Tamales can be used on an everyday basis. Few of the recipes involve intensive prep work -- after all, they had to be prepared within the confines of a 30 minute TV show. Equally important for users outside the South-west, few of the recipes require specialized ingredients. Highly recommended.