Books can satisfy your peculiar food cravings

By Joan Brunskill
Associated Press

From this come books that focus on the less-explored areas of culinary specialization. Recent titles include the following:

"The Gallery of Regrettable Food," Crown, $22.95, by James Lileks: This writer, inspired by the rediscovery of a long-forgotten 1962 cookbook and its illustrations — "ghastly, florid, gorge-tweaking abominations" — became a connoisseur of the awful genre and was moved to collect more of the same. In this book he shares treasured period pictures and adds his own comments. Best tasted in small amounts and after meals.

"Clean Your Clothes With Cheese Whiz," Renaissance Books, 2000, $9.95, by Joey Green: Green is credited with being the author of "Polish Your Furniture With Panty Hose." This is seriously practical stuff.

In his introduction the author recaps past achievements — "I got Jay Leno to shave with Jif Peanut Butter, Rosie O'Donnell to shampoo her hair with Reddiwhip" — and heralds the successful new experiments in this book — "Gatorade cleans toilets" and so on.

In scholarly style, Green documents the antecedents of each product, where it got its name and the many ways it can deny the limited destiny its manufacturer anticipated for it.

"Macaroni and Cheese," Villard, 2001, $15.95, by Joan Schwartz: This collection offers something for a restless cook in pursuit of perfection, "52 recipes, from simple to sublime" for this pasta classic, which others might put down as a cliché.

Schwartz has tapped a talented crew for favorite recipes. Versions in this collection come from such star chefs as Bobby Flay and Charlie Palmer Mozzarella Mac is one of her own. Other variations include a kind of noodle pudding, posh terrines with foie gras and white truffles.

"The Star Wars Cookbook II," Chronicle Books, 2001, $15.95, by Frankie Frankeny and Wesley Martin. This book is subtitled "Darth Malt and More Galactic Recipes": If you missed Volume I, you can join the party here.

Recipes include Pit Droid Pizza and Anakin's Apple Crisp, all illustrated in color-fantasy photos. The book has a sturdy plastic stencil template bound into it so that, if you wish, you can imprint Darth Maul's face on the surfaces of your dips or cake frostings.

"Real Food for Cats" by Patti Delmonte and "Real Food for Dogs," by Arden Moore, Storey, 2001, $12.95 each, paperback: These cookbooks tell animal lovers how to make Gobble Down Goulash or Purr-fect Pasta for their four-pawed friends. Recipes are described as veterinarian-approved for canine and feline gastronomes.

Note: For all the gracious living implied in the concept of gastronomy for pets, it's still probably not worthwhile setting a nice table with linen and crystal for them.