COOKBOOK WATCH

History is told in many ways. Among the most intimate is the family cookbook, which, at its best, tells readers about the food of a specific time and place and especially about the lives of the cooks. One of the best in recent years is Victor and Mary Lau Valle’s “Recipe of Memory: Five Generations of Mexican Cuisine” (The New Press, 1995), which tells the story of Victor Valle’s family journey over many generations from Guadalajara to Southern California. “Recipe of Memory” is the book that comes to mind when one picks up the just-published “Flora’s Kitchen: Recipes From a New Mexico Family” by Regina Romero (Treasure Chest Books, $10.95). Unlike Valle’s family, Romero’s family stayed put for the most part over the years; it was their home, first Albuquerque, then Gallup, N.M., once part of New Spain, that changed around them. But both books give a sense of the texture of Latino life in America. And through the recipes of Romero’s grandmother, Flora Duran Romero, who is the focus of the book, the flavor of New Mexican cuisine--which can be quite different from California’s Mexican traditions--comes through.