With that as a starting point, Big Flavors of the Hot Sun takes you on a journey to the intensely flavored, easygoing world of spicy cooking. This culinary odyssey features the loud flavors and time-tested techniques gathered during the authors' twenty years of cooking with live fire and spices.

Here are more than 240 original, innovative recipes for pantropic-inspired food from the spice zone, that geographic band around the Equator where most spices originated and where through the centuries cooks have learned to use their intense flavors to best advantage. Simple to prepare, healthful, and bursting with dynamic flavors, these recipes from Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby, authors of the best-selling The Thrill of the Grill, are perfect for today's cook.

Before you know it, you'll be confidently combining spices with the subtle tastes of seafood, as in Grilled Shell-On Giant Shrimp with Hot Peanut-Chile Butter or Pineapple Steamed Clams with Simple Coconut Curry; blending aromatic spices into easy-to-use, flavor-packed rubs like Persian-Style Nut Rub and East Coast Grill Masala; and enjoying the deep, complex flavors of dishes like Sweet and Spicy Lo Mein Noodles or Grilled Quail with Cardamom, Ginger Sauce, and Grilled Scallions.

Special features of the book include:

• Instructions on how to get the most out of spices, including ideas for buying, storing, and preparation.
• A chapter of international one dish meals designed for minimum work and maximum flavor.
• A whole chapter of wildly flavorful spice rubs, the quick, easy, and healthful alternative to traditional sauces.
• A descriptive chart with 17 spice mixtures from cuisines around the world.
• 16 pages of glorious full-color photographs.
• 60 user-friendly line drawings that illustrate recipe techniques.