In the kitchen with my favorite bands... | Bread & Butter

Most nights I find myself thumbing through my cook books scanning the recipes, trying to decide which contains the list of ingredients to satisfy my current craving and satiates my ever burning desire to try something new. But more often than not the words on the paper all seem to blur together and the recipes begin to all appear just one in the same.

But recently at University of Cincinnati's bookstore I happened upon what very possibly might be one of my favorite cookbooks yet. It's called I Like Food, Food Tastes Good: In the kitchen with your favorite bands by Kara Zuaro ($17), a Brooklyn-based food, music and travel journalist.

Can you say dream job?

Zuaro starts her foray into the cookbook world, by first explaining its novel premise. She begins by first detailing (very briefly) her early years as a music writer and arriving at the realization that a common thread bound all the Indie bands she interviewed all:

"For the foreseeable future, they'll party professionally and bring joy and hangovers to every city they visit. Their weekends never end. They're a wandering community of big drinkers and independent thinkers. They're doing what they love. They're happy. They're broke. And they're hungry."

Zuaro draws attention to the fact that all bands have given up any resemblance of a stable (dare I say normal?) lifestyle, not to mention any hope for a home cooked meal for the greater part of any given year. And because of that they generally really (perhaps exceptionally) appreciate the activity of eating, that we all so often take for granted.

"...I politely asked the bass player, Matthew Gengler, if they were having a nice time on tour, he spoke very matter-of-factly into my brand-new mini-tape recorder: 'I'm tired and I'm hungry. I can't wait to go home.' Aloha hadn't eaten dinner that night. They couldn't remember if they'd eaten anything since they'd had Taco Bell the night before."

Since that fateful interview, Zuaro began compiling recipes from all her musician friends henceforth, determining that conversations of a comforting, homey and culinary nature shed an entirely new and interesting light on some of our best-loved bands.

This genius book is divided up into the typical sections you might expect from any cookbook: from breakfast foods, to soups, sides and starters, from sandwiches, to the 'main event' and delectable desserts - and there's even a vegetarian section (who woulda thunk?).

Each recipe, dictated by an artist or member of band, has been cooked, loved and tour-tested; some of their own invention and some even passed down from grandmas. Bands with featured recipes include many an outstanding Indie artist, from Ben Kweller, The Walkmen, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie and Interpol among (what seems like) an endless amount of others.

Every recipe begins with a brief introduction by Zuaro of the band, via colorful anecdote; usually of the time Zuaro herself first forged friendships with the artists. Each introduction is followed by a note from the musician in question about the recipe, who usually disseminates the inspiration for their recipe or simply from whence it came.

The recipes vary from the downright funky, to the fun, to absolutely positively scrumptious. And who can dislike a cookbook where you're assured time and time again (by Chris Mills in this instance):

"I know it sounds kinda gross but it's actually quite delicious."

And delicious it definitely is.

On one such chilly evening in the very recent past, my boyfriend Alex and I decided to select a recipe from our newly, acquired gem-of-a-book to whip up and give a whirl. We decided on the Vegetable Enchiladas with Homemade Tomatillo Salsa courtesy of Indie rocker Matt Pond PA.

With our tummy's rumbling we set to work slicing, dicing and assembling our veggie-lovin' Mexican meal. I will preface my story of the experience with the fact that we cut the recipe right down the middle in lieu of the fact that the original "feeds a small orchestra" or 12.

I suppose Alex and myself are by no means professional cooks but we certainly know a mandolin (convenient food slicer) from, well... a mandolin (convenient music maker). And in keeping with that, while this recipe involved several steps, it was a breeze and straightforward (though you absolutely MUST have a food processor).


In a few quick flicks of a knife, some awesome tortilla-rolling technique and 20 minutes in the oven later we had a veritable delicious feast (and I do mean feast; yummy leftovers for days). Being a vegetarian I can't really speak to missing any meaty goodness but Alex is not a vegetarian and love-love-loved them regardless.

The tomatillo salsa was out of this world, tart and tangy and fantastic (we'll definitely be making that part of it again, on it's own and with a big bowl of chips).


Between the juicy tid-bits of new-found information on our favorite bands and the juicy tid-bits we've digested - both Alex and myself consider this book a $17 well spent. We've discovered cute, new insight into the music that satisfies our ears and also discovered new, soon-to-be well-loved recipes to satisfy our bellies.

And that, my friends, is a win-win sort of situation.