In the world of intrepid, globe-trotting food writers, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid deserve special kudos. You won’t find many other writers journeying to the southern tip of India to view the full moon at winter solstice and enjoy Indian dosas – or spending nine days building a tandoori oven from scratch with a Rajasthani woman. Mr. Alford and Ms. Duguid have gathered a lifetime of experiences across four decades of travel and tasting in Asia, and in their new book, they focus on their culinary adventures across the Indian subcontinent. Like an edible travelogue, “Mangoes & Curry Leaves” (Artisan, $40) aims to offer readers a taste of the life they discovered there.

When Mr. Alford and Ms. Duguid first began traveling across the Indian subcontinent in the 1970s, food in America was very different. Spices were musty jars in the back of the pantry, brought out to add color more than flavor. Nowadays, America is more spice-savvy: Local supermarkets sell garam masala and Indian restaurants serve more than just chicken tikka. But in many ways, the food of the Indian subcontinent is as unknown and exotic as ever. It’s still tough to track down restaurants that serve regional Indian food, let alone the cuisines of Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka.

“Mangoes & Curry Leaves” reminds us that the subcontinent is a place of beauty, resiliency, and, of course, terrific food. Flipping through the hefty book is like trekking an enticing spice bazaar. There are puckery tamarind potatoes from Bengal and chile shrimp stir-fry from Goa; followed up by slow-cooked beef with onion from Bangladesh, then dal with coconut kilk from Sri Lanka. And you hardly know where to start first. The gorgeous food photography only adds to the intoxication.

It’s all pretty overwhelming, but befuddlement soon transforms into curiosity in the encouraging hands of the authors, who have written three other books on the foods of Asia. Like all great travelers, Mr. Alford and Ms. Duguid are pragmatists. Rather than treating the recipes they find as museum pieces, they cheerfully adapt them for their own tastes and their American kitchen. Most recipes work well for weeknight dinner, not just entertaining. “We enjoy dishes that can be put on to simmer, needing no care while they cook and gain flavor,” they write.

The only challenge is acquiring the right ingredients. Many recipes call for spices like black mustard seeds,curry leaves,and nigella seeds. Assembling an Indian spice pantry does require a trip to an Indian market, gourmet market, or spice store, but the extra effort is worth it. There’s a whole spectrum of new flavors to be explored, and spices are still easier on the wallet than a flight to Burma.

Joan Nathan’s new book, “The New American Cooking” (Knopf, $35), reminds us that there’s plenty of new food to be discovered here in America. Ms. Nathan is best known as a chronicler of Jewish cuisine, but more than anything, she’s always been a tireless researcher, a gatherer of stories and history as well as recipes. Here she turns her trained eye on American food, exploring nothing less than “how and why the transformation in American food came about.” In other words, how did we get from meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and canned cream of mushroom soup to Ecuadorian shrimp ceviche, roasted beet salad with cumin and parsley, and grilled Thai chicken with lemongrass?

Ms. Nathan traveled far and wide – from New Orleans to Tucson, Boston to Honolulu – to find out, discovering the many influences that make American cooking rich and eclectic. Innovative chefs, the health-food movement, organizations like Slow Food USA, and maverick cheesemakers (among others) all had a hand in the food revolution, she notes.

Ms. Nathan is especially appreciative of the influence that immigrants have had on American food. Every country has a cuisine borne of many cultures, but the United States arguably has the most varied ingredients in its melting pot. Flipping through the book shows how rich the broth really is. Stewed sausages and peppers; snapper with shiitake mushroom, ginger, and cilantro, and jerk chicken are just a few examples. Ms. Nathan also does a terrific job of gathering ethnic recipes that are just as enticing, but less familiar. A Persian wedding yields a recipe for sweet rice with orange peel, saffron and carrots. A baker honors his Scandinavian neighborhood by baking Swedish cardamom bread. A Latin American professor teaches his students the history behind Chilean empanadas.

These recipes also show how recipes evolve with their context. New ingredients, unexpected influences, and the no-nonsense creativity of the home cook can make a good recipe even better. Inspired by an Italian restaurant, Ms. Nathan’s mother adds escarole to her traditional matzo ball soup, while a stylish Asian friend flavors a simple pea soup with Keffir lime leaves. With so many enticing recipes, I wish there were more photographs of the food, but the casual shots of the people and places that Ms. Nathan visited in her travels tell her story in a way a food stylist never could.