Nixta Taqueria Presents: From Tacos to Tahdig

Over 100 recipes for tacos, salsas, polos, khoreshts, and more from the Mexican-Iranian team behind James Beard Award-winning restaurant Nixta Taqueria

Sara Mardanbigi and Edgar Rico are proud hyphenated Americans: Iranian and Mexican, respectively. It's their superpower and what they've built their award-winning restaurant Nixta Taqueria on. Pulling from their rich culinary heritages, they've done what first-genners do best—created delightful twists on Mexican, Iranian, and American classics. In Nixta Taqueria Presents: From Tacos to Tahdig, they sling tacos and tostadas, alongside platters of golden, fluffy rice; rich stewed meats; and so, so, so many herbs.

Nixta Taqueria Presents: From Tacos to Tahdig takes you through recipes from Edgar's childhood in Visalia, California, with family dishes like Tortas de Milanesa de Pollo and Chicharrones en Salsa Verde. Then it's Sara's turn, sharing recipes from the Ozarks in Arkansas and family trips to Iran for Maman’s Fish with Kuku Sabzi and Ash Reshteh. Lastly, they bring it all together, showing the full-force beauty and surprising connection between the two cuisines with recipes like Smashburgers Al Pastor and Saffron Tres Leches.

More recipes include: 

• Nixta Taqueria's legendary Duck Carnitas Tacos
• Barbacoa Empanadas
• Fesenjoon
• Baba's Kabob
• Beet "Tartare"Tostada
• And their famous cross-cultural recipe for rice pudding, Sholeh Zard

With over 100 recipes and stunning photography, Nixta Taqueria Presents: From Tacos to Tahdig is a celebration of where Edgar and Sara have come from and where they are now. Come along for the ride!Sara Mardanbigi is the co-owner of the James Beard and MICHELIN award-winning Nixta Taqueria and the CEO of Taking the Joke Wayyyyyy Too Far. She is an Iranian-American creative, community builder, and leader of Nixta’s operations - including business development, strategic partnerships, people management, content and marketing, and more. This cookbook is her attempt to bottle the Nixta magic, minus the stress dreams, teeth grinding, and broken water pipes.

Edgar Rico is the co-owner of Nixta Taqueria and the CEO of narcolepsy. (Seriously, he can fall asleep anywhere in seconds.) He’s a Mexican-American chef, James Beard Award winner, TIME100 recipient, Food & Wine Best New Chef, winner of Food & Wine’s Best New Restaurant, Culinary Corps Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, and proud World Central Kitchen member. His creative method is equal parts ancestral wisdom and I-had-a-vision-at-3am energy. This cookbook is his tribute to the people and foods that shaped him - and to everyone who’s ever trusted him when he said, “Just taste this, you’re gonna love it.”


JJ Goode helps people write books, and mostly cookbooks, which are the best books. He has coauthored several New York Times bestsellers and has been nominated for several James Beard awards.