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7 opere 181 membri 2 recensioni

Opere di Mike Slater

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male
Luogo di nascita
Philadelphia PA

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Necronomnomnom is a collection of recipes developed as an homage to the works of H.P. Lovecraft, or maybe, less Lovecraft himself and more his works as filtered through the lens of role playing games like Call of Cthulhu. The main gimmick of the Necronononom is that, like some tome of monstrous lore described in The Dunwich Horror or some other Lovecraft story, the recipes are written in a purposefully obtuse, mystical way, attempting to evoke the formula for some ancient ritual or spell. For example, if a recipe were to call for olive oil, the book would say “the oil of virgin… olives,” or that the first step for making a Byakhee gyro includes a whistle, the Elder Sign, the sure Blades of a Processor of Food, etc. Puns abound, including such dishes as the Grape Old Wons (some sort of wonton involving grapes) or the Muesli of Erich Zann.

In fact, that might just be the most horror inducing aspect of the book. A more conventional version of the recipes can be found in the back of the book, in case attempting to make sense of these recipes starts to grate on your sanity. The fact that all of the recipes are illustrated rather than photographed makes attempting to replicate them a little more difficult than the silly puns. That being said, the illustrations, full of cool details and scrawls, are some of the better artistic renderings of Cthulhu Mythos stuff I’ve seen. Extra star for the art.

More than anything else, the recipes included brought to my mind this book I owned as a kid, “Gross Grub,” a collection purposefully unappealing recipes replicating a kitty litter box (sausage in rice casserole) or a spit wad sandwich (peanut butter with marshmallow lumps) that a kid might find fun, especially around Halloween. It's more or less the same thing here, basic recipes spruced up with a little weirdness, like making a little mi-go out of a blackberry, a cashew, and some sprigs of thyme and dill. Not sure if those flavors go that great together, particularly when melted onto a slice of cheddar on top of portobello sandwich. Could be fun for a Halloween party, but nothing I would really choose to make at any other time. I did make one of the very boozy cocktails, the martini; shaken, not Hastur. At least a halved version.

I write about some other fun pop culture tie in cookbooks in in the Pop Culture Cooking entry of Harris' Tome Corner!
… (altro)
½
 
Segnalato
Spoonbridge | 1 altra recensione | Jul 19, 2022 |
It's a Cookbook of recipes based on H.P. Lovecraft's stories, creatures, and characters.

The artwork:

The grimoire look given to the recipe pages by illustrator Kurt Komoda are very much in keeping with the 'book of spells' feel of the whole project, and the illustrator clearly took his inspiration directly from the 'Necronomicon Ex-Mortis' seen in Sam Raimi's original "The Evil Dead" film series (1983-1992), which in tern took its inspiration from the anatomical studies and scientific drawings of renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci (if you have to plagiarize then you may as well aim high!). Although, I would quibble with some of the choices the artist took with a few of the illustrations, in particular the pages for 'Herbert West's Deanimator' which felt a bit jarring considering that it not only shows a modern disposable plastic syringe illustrated along side a traditional glass and metal model, but also a bottle of Robert De Nero's VDKA 6100 branded vodka which can be seen sitting along side some other modern looking bottles.
Maybe I'm taking this all a bit too seriously, but it's kinda weird to me that after having gone to so much effort to age the whole look of this tome to then slip in so many obvious contemporary references.
It is a difficult job for an editor in this situation, but I wish Thomas Roache had worked closer with the artist Kurt Komoda to maintain the timeline of some of the imigery depicted within.

How this book differs the most from, say: 'The Kitchen Overlord's Dead Delicious Horror Cookbook', or the 'Cannibal Kitchen: A Horror Lover's Cookbook', or any number of similar themed titles out there (apart from the Lovecraftian pen & ink drawings) is the painstakingly hand rendered caligraphy which must have driven the poor scribe mad. I did notice that one or two pages seemed either to have been done by a different hand, or else the odd pages here and there were rushed into production with a deadline in mind? (compare the first page of 'Investigator Gumbo' to some of the other examples of script within the book to see what I mean). This may be a small detail, but it does stand out more than it probably should.
Having said that, it is possible to accept that, in keeping with the mythos, such a book would have likely been penned over time, and perhaps incorporating more than one hand/style of script, which adds to the illusion that this is the one true copy of the Necronomicon; than if the text had clearly been written all in one go, lending then to the conclusion that it be a copy transcribed on demand by a demonic monk working alone. Either way, it is a pretty cool notion.

The production:

In terms of detailing, I really liked how the patina and general ageing on each page had been given enough attention that at first glance they all appear unique. In actual fact, I only spotted one or two duplicated backgrounds throughout the entire book (which is not a great sin), and that was only because I really looked hard! Details such as this are almost unheard of in my experience. It is clear that a great deal of attention to detail was put forth into this area.

This book is avaliable in a limited 'Deluxe Edition' 3D latex cover, however even the standard version (which I own) comes bound in a very creepy vinyl soft touch binding; but it is the pages themselves which exhude the heady odor, akin to linseed oil (which I very much expect will dissipate in time).
Another small, but welcome feature is the incorporated ribbon marker - just another small detail that makes this book feel extra special.

The big criticism I have in the formatting of this book, it is that the absence of any page numbering makes navigation problematic at best, but that there is no index at all renders finding a recipe all but impossible (so, I'm knocking off 1/2 a star in my review in light of this fact). To fix this little issue in the mean time, check out my 'Mod' [below].

It is also worth noting the obviously disproportionate number of blank end pages. I'm not sure if these pages have been left blank so that you can include your own recipies, but I suspect they were in fact supposed to have contained the proposed photographs of the actual meals, since they do feel unfinished (I'm going to have to take off another 1/2 star for this oddity).
I should also add that, I'd expect that the current meal photographs circulating the net, although nicely presented, would have needed a re-shoot to bring them up to the higher standards required for publication - compare the publicity images of the prepared meals (released on the authors blog), with the photos in Zach Neil's 'The Nightmare Before Dinner' as a good example of the art of food photography).
Adding colour photographs to the book may be a bone of contention (I'm not sure I'm on-board with the whole idea myself). Having said that, it could be made to work, if as I have already said, the selection of meals chosen were to be professionally photographed, and either; individually photo mounted on to the back pages as a scrap album, or alternatively a handful of glossy 10x8 prints slipped into a side pocket as loose artifacts. Budget as well as aesthetic choices may have been responsible for the omission?

I would also question the level of involvement needed to complete all the recipies in the book. One in particular 'The Ring That Should Not Be' requires the use of a specific type of tentacle mould. Short of the required artistic model making and technical hand casting or mechanical vacume forming skills needed to create your own; I am not sure where one would procure this rare and necessary item, if not included along with the purchase of this book (which clearly it is not). Surely Mr. Slater could have figured out a more simplistic way of obtaining a similar tentacle effect using strips of fruit or something as creative. That is the difference between a recipe designed for a specialist restaurant and one catering for a domestic kitchen.

In general, the book as it stands feels a bit too rushed-into-print for my liking.
The book cover (apart from the spine) omits any typography at all (which was a feature of the original proposed artwork). Once again, I think it looks good without (don't get me wrong), but I also think that a version of the cover art with the text as an additional dust-cover may have just finished the whole thing off, and would certainly have been demanded for retail display in terms of branding for identification and publicity; but being a Kicksterter, costs may have been a big factor and I appreciate all the effort put into this project as it stands.

Mod:

In my own personal copy of the book I have slipped in a copy sheet of the recompiled index [added below] (based on the authors pre-publication list from their Kickstarter page), which I have updated and corrected to conform with the current copy of the book in print at this time.
I have also provided an idea of where you should find the recipes, by assigning numbers to the pages (ignoring the front end papers, and starting page '1' at the first recipe). However, in doing so it has also revealed how more than a few recipes have gotten shuffled out of place in the final formatting before printing and binding took place (I was tempted to take off yet another 1/2 star, except I'd end up with too low of a final score, which would give the wrong impression I have about this book as a whole.)

Conclusion

In general, this book could have done with being released as an ARC first, to iron out the kinks. As it happens, it feels like the team either didn't notice, or were undecided as to what to do about certain matters, and needed to get into print already finding the project slipping over the deadline.
(For this and other factors I'm docking another 1/2 star).

That having all been said; this is an extremly nice looking book which takes pride of place displayed front centre on my bookshelf - make no mistake!
I am a bit wary to bring this amazing tome into the risky environment of the kitchen, in order to try out some of the intriguing sounding recipies for myself, for fear of adding to the patina with the contents of my mixing bowl.
Although, I would not chance testing the theory unnecessarily, I suspect the pages heavy textured quality may actually repel the odd splash; so, perhaps I will try taking it into the kitchen sometime in the near future, to put it to good use.

Thank you to the team at Red Duke Games for producing such a unique book which I will treasure.

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Recipes that you will (actually) find in the Cookbook:

Beverages

1) The Alchemy of Shaken, Not Hastur (martini)
3) At the Fountains of Madness
5) Gin and Miskatonic
7) Nog - Sothoth - The Liquor at the Punch Bowl
9) Herbert West’s Deanimator
11) Mi-Go Brain Cylinder

Breakfast

67) The Muesli of Eric Zann

Appetizers

13) Sunken Mu
15) The Grape Old Wons
17) Sacrificial lamb
19) Atlach-Nachos
83) Shogg-Pockets

Soups

21) New England Damned Chowder
23) Pallid Bisque (Very filling)
25) Investigator Gumbo

Salads

27) Dining Trapezohedron (of Lettuce)

Main entree: Sandwiches

39) To call forth the Sandwich Horror
41) Byakhee Gyro
43) Mi-Go to Go (Portable portabella steak sandwiches)
45) Wilbur Whateley's Dunwich Sandwich

Main dishes: Beef : Poultry : Pork

37) Formless Spawnghetti
49) Shogghoulash
51) Albino Penguin Au Vin Blanc
53) Curried Favor of the Old Ones

Main dishes: From The Depths

29) Tsauagambalaja (seafood jambalaya)
31) Ahiä! Ahiä! Father Dragon!
33) Deep fried Deep One
35) The Fishes from Outside
47) Innsmouth Shuck

Main dishes: Vegetarian (that is, dishes for vegetarians - not made from them)

55) The Fate of the Elder Thing
57) Foul-lafel
69) Vegemitey Cthulhu

Side dishes

59) Cthus-koos
61) The Unknown Ka'squash
63) The Side Dish Not To Be Named
65) Tcho-Tcho Chow Chow

Desserts

71) Yogash the Gruel
85) To Summon Nyarlathotapioca!
87) Yogsicles
89) Moon-Beast Pies
91) Joe Slater’s In-bread Pudding
93) The Mounds of Tindalos
95) The Custard Out of Space
97) The Cake in Yellow
99) The Ring That Should Not Be

Breads

73) Great Old Buns
75) The Oats of Dagon

Kids Menu (Not made with real kids)

77) Cultists in Robes
79) Yiggy Pudding
81) Lovecraft Macaroni & Cheese
… (altro)
½
1 vota
Segnalato
Sylak | 1 altra recensione | Dec 29, 2018 |

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Opere
7
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181
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ISBN
17
Lingue
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