I should offer a couple of caveats up front; I am a fan of many of the bands that have contributed to I Like Food, Food Tastes Good and also have a thing for cookbooks. There is an entire bookshelf devoted to cookbooks in my house so when the chance presented itself to review something that combined food and music I leapt at it. Of the dozens of cookbooks in our house, only a handful are actually used on any regular basis, most fall into the ‘good for inspiration’ or food porn (glossy colour photos of beautifully plated food that is realistically unattainable) categories. When I saw Death Cab For Cutie’s recipe for Veggie Sausage And Peanut Butter Sandwiches I thought this book was headed for the smaller section of just plain bad ideas along with my copy of Giga-bites, a computer hacker cookbook that mostly contains revolting things to do with Twinkies. I could not have been more wrong.
Brooklyn-based journalist Kara Zuaro has assembled an impressive and wide ranging book of recipes that will have something to appeal to any cook that picks it up. The seven chapters begin with breakfast and carry on right through to desert. Main courses are divided into “Mains for carnivores” and “Mains for vegetarians”. The table of contents gives the band name along with each recipe and Zuaro has included an excellent index so everything is easy to find whether you are looking for a type of food or particular band.
The important question to answer though is “Does this food taste good?” and the answer is a resound yes and the proof is in the pudding. In this case, that’s Sissy’s Banana Pudding offered by Drive By Truckers. I haven’t made this pudding yet but it is working its way up the list. To test things out I started with The Descendents ‘Bill’s Pico De Gallo’ which had us questioning why we ever buy jarred salsa. Franz Ferdinand’s Lemon Ginger Flapjacks are a new favourite snack and if I can find a bar that has real ginger beer Laura Minor’s Dark n Stormy Florida will be my cocktail of choice. I like this book, its food tastes good! (Colin Holt)
by Kara Zuaro, $22.95, 256 pgs, Hyperion Books, 77 W. 66th Street, New York, NY 10023, hyperionbooks.com