We’ve given away several copies of The Fearless Critic Austin Restaurant Guide: Feisty Local Food Writers Rate and Review 390 Places to Eat, always gratefully received and excellent conversation pieces. After acquiring a personal copy at full price, we found some slightly discounted at a Half Price Books. Cheaper copies yet have been sighted at Albertsons, and I even convinced a person to buy one right on the spot at the Pleasant Valley market.

Another book to seek on the supermarket shelves is Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert: Norteno Cooking of South Texas, by Melissa Guerra, who will be right here in Austin on October 29 at the Texas Book Festival. She’s scheduled to give a cooking demonstration and to sign books. I found my copy, again at a good discount, at an H-E-B. Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert, in addition to recipes for making so many favorite dishes at home (including marranitos), contains much background information. Among my favorite sections of this book are a discussion of lard as an ingredient and an excellent description, with names in Spanish, of the sections into which cabrito is cut .

Look for these and other surprising hard-cover books in the magazines section. And let us know about your favorite cabrito here in town. I’m still missing my favorite, served at Jalisco, now gone.