You thought we were gone but The Runcible Spoon is back again, with our BIGGEST, MOST INSANE issue ever: the #InternetIssue!
Why the internet? Because a whole unique food culture exists on the web that is separate from reality. A place where people listen to sounds of other people slurping and chewing things to fall asleep. A place where people worship Doritos and Oreos. A place where good food photos = good, and bad food photos = good.
Order the new (print, not digital!) issue on Etsy here, and get a food-focused look at the internet through the last two decades, from ASCII art to Yelp reviews to ramen burgers to #cakefails.
Our feature stories include an experiment in mukbang, a South Korean phenomenon where people livestream themselves eating in front of strangers for hours and hours. Writer Alica Forneret made the first American mukbang and aired it in a live YouTube webstream - and ate a total of 30 things (homemade tortillas, pizza, ramen, dumplings and so much more!) in 4 hours.
Another story features one ambitious writer’s attempt to make a 50-layer crepe cake using a Martha Stewart recipe without reading the comments. As expected, it is a complete disaster.
We also got writer Jonathan Shipley to eat at the scary, gross restaurants with 1-star Yelp reviews around his native Seattle, and see whether reality matches the hype (for the most part, yes).
What else can you expect? Pop up ads you’d actually want to click. A quiz on what to feed your internet. How to make lasagna… using only Twitter.
Our contributors to the Internet Issue are freaking awesome. The cover was made by none other than Jon Chonko of Scanwiches. We have some beautiful collages from Eugenia Loli. We have some 2-D gifs from Sam Lyon of Jellygummies. And funny Twitter stuff from Twitter-famous Chris Scott. And emoji makeovers from Canadian illustrator Ed Kwong.
Intrigued? Order the issue here on Etsy. You know you wanna!
As always, this issue was handmade on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., using magazine scraps from food magazines we destroyed and hand-drawn illustrations.
Photos by Jayne Orenstein