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From South Texas barbecue to a deep dive into the world of salsas, these chefs from the Lone Star State can help up your kitchen game.
This episode of the Tacos of Texas podcast was originally aired live on the Texas Standard on May 1, 2025.
As more folks look to tighten their wallets by forgoing the restaurant and cooking at home instead, there are a handful of cookbooks hitting the shelves.
Taco journalist Mando Rayo says these books will make those home meals a little bit better, with some Tex-Mex flavors for sure.
The Tacos of Texas podcast host joined the Standard with more. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
The full transcript of this episode of Tacos of Texas is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Alright, so how about this one cookbook that just came out last week – Alfredo Garcia, it’s called “Let’s Make It! A Mexican-American Culinary Adventure.” You know Alfredo?
Mando Rayo: Actually, you know, I’ve been a big fan. I follow him on the social. So like, I’m hoping we’re going to connect in the next week or two.
But I love his stuff. It’s great to see a content creator of Mexican recipes, but also like this duality of Mexican and American. And so this idea around like, yeah, you can make some nachos or some taquitos de pollo, but he also does a strawberry guajillo jam or – get this – mango chamoy wings
I love that. I love the sound of that. That’s awesome. Well, I was gonna ask, what is it about this cookbook that you enjoy? But I think you’ve just said it all right there – one big mouthful.
Yeah. Some, sure, you do have like that mix of traditional ones, but then when you think about like the flavors that we all love when we go to the market or the pulga… I mean, mango chamoy just stands out for me.
The next cookbook actually came out this week. I think this is by a former Austinite, Rick Martínez. This is called “Salsa Daddy: A Cookbook: Dip Your Way into Mexican Cooking.”
Pretty self-explanatory, it sounds like, with that title, huh, Mando?
Oh, man, you know, it’s so funny. Sometimes people ask me, like, “well, how many types of tacos are there?” You know, same thing for salsas. There’s so many versions of that.
Rick Martínez, I love everything he’s doing… A breakdown of salsa’s when you open the book, you see the chiles and the different styles of chiles. So if you don’t know the difference between jalapeño and serrano, you’re going to learn real quick.
That could be a big mistake.
Yeah. Or, you know, like thinking about like, okay, what are some of the traditional salsas, you know? The green salsa, tomatillo salsa, chile de arbol, those kinds. But as well as like, what do you pair them with?
And so his book really focuses on that. So it’s not only the salsa. He has like, I think 70-plus salsas in there.
70-plus? That’s great.
I know. It’s not like a dip or an add-on, it’s actually cooking with the salsas. So it’s a whole different layer to it. You know what I mean?
And so, say like if you have like a great salsa macha and, you know, pairing that or cooking with it, or maybe you have a green salsa that you just love and then you can kind of explore that as a dip, too.
Anything and everything that involves salsas, I am game.
You know, one of these days, Mando, we’re gonna have to talk about the differences between salsa and kind of pico de gallo sort of thing, you know what I’m talking about?
See, you could get it in his book. You can blend it, you can chop it, you can mix it, you can crush it. You know, so that’s all covered in his book.
I’m all in. This last one, we still got a ways to go before it comes out on July 15. This is by the internet’s tío, Arnie Segovia, otherwise known as Arnie Tex, self-titled “Arnie Texas: Over 100 Recipes for Mexican-American Cooking and Texas-style BBQ.”
I know this one’s highly anticipated.
Oh, completely. If you love that ranch-style approach to cooking – whether it’s backyard grilling, smoking, burgers on the grill – you’re going to love this book. So it’s definitely highly anticipated.
He has a huge following on social media and that’s kind of what brings all these authors together, is like they didn’t wait to get this book deal. They’re making it at home in their backyards.
With Arnie, he’s really like doing these awesome how-to videos for folks that maybe live outside of Texas, maybe some people that live in Texas and they’re still trying to get their grilling chops on.
Everything from when you think of like traditional guajillo sauce for enchiladas or maybe a Mexican hamburguesa. You know what I mean? And so it’s the flavors that really kind of come through or maybe smoking some some ribs or really hosting a carne asada, right? A parrillada.
And so yeah, my library over the summer is stacking.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
