“Can you please make mine mild?” This spring brings with it The Runcible Spoon’s BLAND ISSUE. And really, what else is there to say.

How to Make a Zine from AJ Chavar on Vimeo.

Kalee Rinehart ate all her meals between two rice cakes for a week. 

We’ve culled together tasteless tales and painful experiments for your general amusement. If your favorite meal is buttery noodles with NOTHING else on them, this is the place for you. In an attempt to be artistic, we decided not to include the world “bland” in any part of the issue. Or at least we tried.

Get the issue now

Alica Forneret teaches us that people in the Midwest really like casseroles. 

In this spice-averse issue, you will find:

++ “True life: I’m Allergic to Garlic,” a personal essay 
++ Cooking with Cat: Let's Make Tofu Pudding with a feisty feline chef 
++ A riveting interview with Mr. Milquetoast on milk toast
++How to make true beige casseroles, straight from America’s heartland

And much more! As always, the issue is handmade and collaged with love for our dear readers.

Featured contributors include Brooklyn photographer Chris Maggio, creator of the Male Chef blog; UK painter and creator of beautiful food art Joel Penkman; food storyteller Alica Forneret; and funkytown illustrator Donald Ely. 

Preorder your issue here (ships out April 28, 2014) 

-Hollis

If you read and enjoy The Runcible Spoon it's a safe bet that you consider the grocery store to be your personal haven. A sanctuary where most everything is edible, be it the bodega on the corner,  the membership-only co-op, or somewhere in between. Personally, I always spend far too long in a grocery store whenever I have to go, overwhelmed by all the taste possibilities and groceries that I either want to buy or want to know about. When I was a kid one of my dream occupations (when I wasn't busy debating whether I eventually wanted to host or be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live) was to be a grocery store clerk. All that scanning and deliberate Tetris-like paper bag packing? Yes, please.

So imagine my delight upon seeing the pictures from Chanel's latest fashion show — the theme and show backdrop being a super-luxury, Chanel-branded grocery store. Yep, you can finally buy Chanel-sourced citrus, sample Chanel-made sauces and carry it all out with your Chanel-crafted grocery baskets. Sadly only one of these things will likely be available for purchase (the latter, costing gobs and gobs of money) but now I dream of the day where visiting this high-fashion food paradise could be a reality.

--Alison 

The Runcible Spoon is gettin' busy this Spring! Join us for three events and pick up new and past issues, merch, and meet your editors! 

District Flea, April 5: The Runcible Spoon is doing a pop-up zine fest at District Flea. Come find us! Florida and V St. NW, Saturday, April 5, all day. 

Food Book Fair, April 26. The Runcible Spoon will be at the third annual Food Book Fair Foodieodicals event alongside editors from your favorite indie food mags. $5, 12-4PM, Saturday, April 26, 2014. Wythe Hotel, Brooklyn, NYC.

Brooklyn Zine Fest, April 27. We'll be tabling at the Brooklyn Zine Fest for the second year in a row! This time around, the zine fest is two days long (that's a lot of zines). We'll be at the Fest on Sunday. Sunday, April 27, 11am-6PM, Brooklyn Historical Society. 

Can you join us for any of these events? Tell us in a comment below!

Want to know what zines The Spoon was excited about at the LA Zine Fest? OK. We'll tell you.

CLAIRE: 

"Eschew" comics by Robert Sergel. One-page jokes and stories like this one.

"American Dream" graphics/aphorisms by Harry Diaz, a Guatemalan-born artist/designer in LA.

Everything JT Steiny does is really funny, but I went with a little book called "JODY" about a bug who impresses all the other animals with her dance skills. 

Two little pocket-sized things: "Yuck Faces" by this awesome illustrator. And "The Many Ways Of The Potato" because food.

To remember my first, most wonderful trip to LA, two LA-themed zines. This little guy of doodled street scenes. And another one by LA-transplant/comic illustrator Hannah Nance.

And a little instructional book (made by an employee at Skylight Books (which carries The Runcible Spoon)) called "How To Stay Alive," which includes tips like: Call people back, Ask questions, Make a zine

CLAIRE'S LOOT

ALISON:

The LA Zine Fest proved to be a great time to put face to zine-idol name. I finally met my #1 favorite comics maker, Esther Pearl Watson. I've been enchanted with her Unlovable series for many years—getting to check out her other work was so great. Here we have Orange Party Balls, Eric Parris World and Blood Lady Commandos. Everything she makes is hilarious, and I think fans of The Spoon would really like OPB—it's the weirdest most blech-inducing recipes from small-town collaborative cookbooks. She inserts her own illustrations within and it definitely garners more than a few LOLs. Also in the mix is Murder Dollhouse from Teppei Ando. I'd bought one of his hilarious comics at Baltimore's Atomic Books ages ago, and this new purchase did not disappoint. I just love his illustration style and the cool/weird factor (made-up ads, especially.)

ALISON'S BOUNTY

KALEE: 

I fell in love with a zine called The Bogus Zine by Sandra Markarian. It's a pretty simple concept: little snippets of internal monologue on one page followed by an unrelated illustration on the next. For example, "Also, he was a bad kisser. So who cares." / horse smoking a cigarette with the caption "BOGUS" underneath. Beautiful. 

KALEE'S TREASURE TROVE

MALAKA: 

I actually didn't buy any zines at the fest except for 1: gut feelings. Its the only zine I really wanted and I was glad to have my tarot card reading (free with purchase) done, too. 

MALAKA'S FAVORITE MEME CREATED BY CLAIRE

The Runcible Spoon's Cheap Issue and Food Fantasies And How to Execute Them are now available at Nibble, a little bookshop run by conceptual catering company I'm a KOMBO, in Copenhagen, Denmark. See our zines on the second bookshelf from the top? They're the first two in the row!

Nibble is I’m a KOMBO’s new platform for culinary innovation, inspiration and exchange in the heart of Copenhagen’s meat packing district. Their ambition is simple: to select and gather some, or maybe all, of the world’s most prominent food magazines and obscure culinary editions alongside various handpicked design and art items involving or concerning food, and present it all in a modern airy space, which is part shop, part café, part library and part kitchen table.

If you live in Copenhagen - please come by the shop and buy it! 

Nibble @ I’m a KOMBO
Høkerboderne 12
1712 Copenhagen V
Denmark

Your Runcible Spoon editors traveled across the country this weekend to attend the LA Zine Fest in Culver City, Calif., to bring our zany food gospel to the un-Runcied Western masses. 

It was a big success! We got to sell A LOT of our zines, check out some of the crazy awesome work from our other zine friends (we're coming out with a blog of all our favorite zines from the LA Zine Fest. DON'T WORRY). And get this: Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, bought our Winner's Pack, which includes three zines, a tote bag and a pin. Apparently he's a regular visitor of LA's cartoon and zine scene, but for us DC folks he was a BIG CELEBRITY! 

There was a zine hut!

Here was our table! Do you see On Flora? 

Your Runcy editors at work. And On Flora, too. Haha she looks so happy.

This Runcible Spoon fan had a taco- and burrito-printed shirt to match. 

Loved some of the characters we met, including KimBurly and Aurora Lady.  

Somebody included a Runcy in their zine stash picture. #grateful. 

All in all, it was a gr8 event. Thanks LA Zine Fest!  Stay tuned for a cool blog on our favorite zines from the Fest soon. 

Illustrator Alex Markavage's collages are reminiscent of a simpler time — a time when families would pile in their car and drive across the country with giant hamburgers strapped to the top. The series — titled "the junk is not in the trunk" — makes us wish we had cars....and impossibly large bags of chips. It's a roadtrip Runcy can really get behind.

http://alexismarkavage.com/junk.html

-KALEE @kaleethehun

For you know who you are...

xoxo
Malaka  

Meet Chuck Kuan. I met him on Facebook and he asked if we offered internships. I said, do you know that we are a zine? And he said yes but he still wanted to be our intern anyway, so he's the coolest. Let's learn more about our dear intern Chuck. I have never met him but I think he's a star. 

1. How did you find out about the Runcible Spoon? Why did you want to intern for us? 
I found the zine while reading about some food book fair that I (in the typical Chuck manner) found out about only after it ended. Not only do I like collaging a lot, I also kind of "pretend cook" a lot of the times, so it seems like a really good match.

2. What is your day gig? (Student, traveling magician, mouse?) 
Actually I'm a disillusioned psychology student trying to find interesting, non-psychology, paper-related things to do.

3. What kind of experience do you want to get out of an internship with a zine about fake recipes? 
Food is about storytelling and I guess because Runcible Spoon is about fake recipes the boundaries are limitless! I want to and I think I will have a lot of fun!

4. What meal would you like to eat before you die? 
Serious questions need serious answers– I would like to go to Fäviken, but hopefully it wouldn't be me paying for it.

5. What's the worst thing you've ever put into your mouth? 
A LOT of asian pickled foods aren't really for human consumption I think. Simply vile.

6. What's your approach when it comes to cooking? 
When in doubt, make it Asian! Use mirin, hondashi, gochujang, miso, etc. Honestly that's why if I don't follow a recipe things kind of all taste the same.

7. Say something about yourself in 4 1/2 words
Eating // all the time 

Welcome Chuck! Don't ever spell his last name like "Kwan" or "Kwon." It's "Kuan." Follow him on Twitter here. 

Don't forget our other intern Hollis! 

DC ramen shop Toki Underground and Charm City's legendary Woodberry Kitchen are teaming up for #Tokifact, a ramen-cocktail takeover at Artifact Coffee in Baltimore.

They've been very sweet in letting The Runcible Spoon come along for the ride - our new CHEAP I$$UE will be on sale at the #Tokifact event - so be sure to look around for our zine at #Tokifact!

Can't make it to #Tokifact but really want a copy of the new CHEAP? Get yours here.