Sound Bites (2007)

Alex Kapranos, the lead singer and guitarist for the Scottish rock outfit Franz Ferdinand, has added to a collection of food columns penned while on tour. The result is Sound Bites, a slim but incredibly satisfying book. While not technically an amateur (he worked as a chef for years before getting into music), Kapranos approaches dishes both exotic (bull testes in Argentina) and commonplace (doughnuts in Brooklyn) with childlike curiosity. Evocative descriptions such as this take on bone marrow — ''I scoop out a dollop. Glistening. Pink. Gelatinous...it reminds me of placenta'' — make one long for the day this guy writes a novel.