O Ye of Little Feta!

Side Dish
"Poets make the best cooks," Joyce Carol Oates writes in her essay "Food Mysteries." Ron Offen, editor of The Starving Poets' Cookbook, obviously agrees. In his slim paperback volume, Offen has collected recipes and related poems from 30 hungry contributors, who apparently eat better than most of us - or at least appreciate it more. Entries range from Anne Kennedy's "A to Zucchini" to "Revenge Tofu Style" (Alan Catlin) to "The Meaning of Taquitos" (Lola Haskins). You couldn't ask for a more flavorful roundup, even if desserts seem to dominate entrees and instructions are somewhat personalized -- a recipe for a dish called Dragon's Breath "serves two children, one adult, and one child who eats more than others." I'd much rather bake a French chocolate cake from these pages, knowing that "when you split the beautiful single slice . . . you each have the largest piece," than consult a more traditional cookbook, no matter how professional the author. Make a poet out of your cook by sending a ten-dollar check to Free Lunch, P.O. Box 7647, Laguna Niguel,