SCATTERED, COVERED, SMOTHERED: Fantastical Cuisine

Jason Erik Lundberg has edited his first anthology, Scattered, Covered, Smothered, with the inspired theme of cooking, food, and recipes.



Not only does the antho feature a wonderful cover by Janet Chui, but, if I do say so myself, a great list of contributors, including Nalo Hopkinson, Rhys Hughes, Christopher Rowe, Brendan Connell, Barth Anderson, and Heather Shaw.
Here's the blurbage about the antho on their site:

Two Cranes Press is delighted to present 54,000 words of literary ambrosia from a wide gamut of authors, from established novelists to writers who have never published before. Scattered, Covered, Smothered also showcases a range of genres, from the literary to the truly bizarre, and all areas inbetween. Inside these pages, you'll find infatuation in Buenos Aires, quiet relationship struggles in American suburbia, an imaginary land constructed entirely of edibles, and the Lovecraftian horror of a very unusual café, among many others. The tales in this anthology have been exquisitely crafted, gently kneaded and lovingly shaped into imaginative literature that will leave you hungry for more.

The anthology also features a collaboration between me, M.F. Korn, and D.F. Lewis called "The Strange Case of the Lovecraft Cafe". This collaboration is something we've worked on in fits and starts over the past three or four years, but it only came together as something cohesive when we heard about Lundberg's anthology. What is it? It's both homage to and pastiche of Lovecraft's writing, while also including fragments of a menu from the mysterious Lovecraft Cafe, a place that serves unimaginable atrocities, but with a very good wine list.

I'm very fond of this story, and also quite proud of the fact that it's a true collaboration, with all three of us adding our own distinct flavor to each portion of the story. Here's a short excerpt from the menu portion...

Flaming Whole Giant Penguin – Served flaming in its entirety, from beak to excavated bowels (filled with smaller fowl such as whole marinated quail, owls, and dwarf eagles), and recently retrieved for your eating pleasure from the Mountains of Madness, the bird is first plucked, the feathers replaced in a more aesthetically pleasing pattern. A delightful concoction of fat, pounded ham, offal, spices, prunes, dried sour cherries, cheese, and eggs is injected under the fat layer. The whole is then alternately slow-roasted on a spit and placed on mounds of melting ice to preserve the glacial allure of the living bird. Note: We require three days’ advance notice to capture and prepare this dish for you.

Pan-Tossed Nemonymi From Yuggoth - These delicate rare fungal tastes from the Lost Atlantis of our deepest unknown cellar are baked for months between specially made clay brickbats. However, for optimum tenderization and to trigger their true toothsome Yuggoth flavor, they will be lightly tossed by your table in red-hot woks of evaporating apricot juice. The hissing scream emitted thereby is simply a byproduct of the steam, not, as some have supposed, a final death cry.

Crustaceans A La Hodgson - A sumptuous dish rendered by tossing undistressed winged crustaceans that have Fallen here to our mote dust globule from vectorless vortices of unplumbed galactic space into a large iron pot of steaming parboiling rainwater. Served hot with garlic butter and plenty of napkins. Note: Very hard to unshell but worth the effort.

It's available in time for the holidays and it's a one-of-a-kind item. I'm ordering dozens for friends and family. Given the small initial print run, I recommend ordering immediately if you're interested.

JeffV