Part cookbook, part travel journal, part wine guide, To the Heart of Spain takes readers on a delightful, often irreverent "knife, fork and wine glass" journey through the regions of Spain. From the dusty backroad bars of Extremadura, to the trendy restaurants of Madrid, to the sand beach horse races of Andalusia, to the wine cathedrals of Jerez, Ann and Larry Walker pursue the heart of Europe's most mysterious land through its cuisine and the remarkable characters who bring it to the table. To the Heart of Spain includes a complete Spanish cookbook section--from tapas to desserts--with more than 100 authoritative, kitchen-tested recipes; an inside view of the wineries and winemakers that have shaped a new era in Spanish wines; and thoughtful reflections on Spanish history and character of interest to travelers and armchair travelers.

An affectionate, first-hand portrait of the Spanish landscape and people, To the Heart of Spain captures the essence of a Spain overlooked by conventional touring guides.

Customer Review: Tasty stuff!

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!

Customer Review: local foods and local wines...yum.

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.

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