To the Heart of Spain: Food and Wine Adventures Beyond the Pyrenees

Using mostly descriptions (and a few of the recipes) from this book, I gave a very successful tapas/wine tasting party. Fortunately, the local liquor store had a number of wines from the bodegas mentioned in the book, and we had a blast comparing different grapes and regions. I also got one of the whites the book particularly recommends, and it was delicious. The food was probably the most unusual I have ever served at a party, and people got very excited about it. A very useful book!

This is not a typical guidebook with lists of where-tos and what-tos. The first 2/3 of the book is a gastronomic pilgrimage circling Spain. Ann and Larry don't attempt for example, to list every good restaurant and wine in Galicia. Instead there's a wonderful story about a quest to find the perfect Albarino (a local white wine grape)and the meals along the way. Somehow the story explains more about the nature of Celtic Spain than any other guidebook I've read. What was especially appealing is that Ann and Larry are not simply searching for the best restaurants or the greatest wine lists; rather their search is for the best of what the region grows. This is a major difference from a book structured on ranking establishments on some sort of scale that could be used in Toledo OH or in Toledo ES. What I want to see is Spain, and I think this book gave our trip a jumpstart.

_To the Heart of Spain_ is an excellent book, one written for real lovers of Spain. I think it might also encourage those who don't know Spain to visit it with an open and even positive mind-set. Americans, for some reason, often arrive in Spain with a somewhat negative attitude and then wonder why they don't enjoy their trip. The Walkers' book doesn't overwhelm you with guidebook-chatter, but is an unpretentiously personal and warm introduction to some of the charms of this most interesting of places.I am a Spanish-English translator and I spend as much time as I can every year in Spain. I have traveled over the entire peninsula, since I can never decide which part of Spain I like best. When I read the Walkers' book, I felt I had met kindred spirits, people totally enamored of Spain, the land, its history, its food and its always unpredictable people.You will enjoy the good, down-to-earth accounts of places they ate, stayed, drove, visited, etc. and of the many fine wines and meals they worked their way through in the process (what suffering!). There are also a number of really excellent recipes in the back of the book. They are authentic but have been extremely well adapted for American ingredients and cooking practices.The Walkers are very knowledgeable about wines and give you fascinating little tips and sidelights on Spanish wine production. Even if your travel plans go no further than a trip to the liquor store, you'll find the book to be a useful guide to the still relatively new territory of Spanish wine.All told, this is one of the most enjoyable travel/food books I have read in recent years, and it was a particular treat to read such a good book about my favorite place.