This is sort of a weird book: The Gastronaut (here is his website). The type where most of the time while reading it, you are caught between rolling your eyes, shrugging your shoulders and then nodding in agreement or entertaining the occasional smile.

You read this kind of book, and not everything resonates. But a few things do—there are a few points of interest that you twist around and squint at and finally appreciate. I found myself smirking and nodding in agreement when I read this little excerpt:

The Gastronaut’s Creed:

Food will consume 16% of my life. That life is too precious to waste. Therefore:

1. I resolve, whenever possible, to transform food from fuel into love, power, adventure, poetry, sex, or drama.

2. I will never turn down the opportunity to taste or cook something new.

3. I will never forget: canapes are evil.

4. I will remember that culinary disaster does not necessarily equal culinary failure.

5. I will always keep a jar of pesto on hand in case of the latter.

I will say this about his book: it is light, comical and pushes your culinary brain beyond the tease. The author’s premise is this: test it, try it, make a mess, go against the culinary grain just in case you might find a winner. Like the scientist seeking the needle in the haystack, focus on the importance of that potential needle—then the author cooks in some humor for good measure.

I DO like the encouragement to go out on a culinary limb, the insistence on maintaining curiosity and the belief that nothing is too much of a stretch to consider (but gold-foiling cheetohs? really?). Sounds like a teacher saying: no question is a bad question.

Think: weird food… why not?