Tom Grimm - The Unofficial Stranger Things Cookbook: (Pop Culture Cookbook, Demogorgon, Hellfire Club)

FOR OSKAR Ossi BHM, THE FATHER I NEVER HAD.

From now on, God above no longer has the last word!

For someone like me who grew up reading Stephen King books, Stranger Things is a godsenda gift Id been hoping so long to receive that I didnt think it would ever happen.

Since I began my reading career in the mid-1980s (the older ones among you will remember), mainly with comics and illustrated magazines, Stephen Kings Firestarter was the first real novel I ever read. I must have been twelve or thirteen at the time. And while that book cant be considered one of Kings greatest achievements, the parallels to Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers terrific Netflix series, are unmistakable; after all, both are about a girl with special powers who escapes from a U.S. government research facility. The resemblance is quite striking.

Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of Stranger Things, have also drawn from other early works by the King of Horror, such as his masterpiece It. Apart from the fact that both stories are set in small-town America, everything revolves around a group of unpopular, nerdy, but good-hearted boys who are confronted with supernatural events and make the acquaintance of a mysterious girl who really gets their hormones going. But thats not all: The fearless Bob Newby, the superhero from the second season of Stranger Things and boyfriend of Joyce Byers, explained that he had grown up in Maine, where most of Kings stories are set. This suggests that the creepy clown Bob encountered at the fair as a child that gave him nightmares for years might have been the killer clown Pennywise. Other scenes in Stranger Things, such as the different times the kids walk along the railroad tracks, seem to be taken straight from Kings novella The Body or Rob Reiners sensitive film adaptation Stand by Me. And when Billy Hargrove rams his head through the door to grab Max in season three, the only thing missing are Jack Nicholsons chilling words in The Shining, Heres Johnny!

In other words, Stranger Things captures the spirit of Stephen Kings work a thousand times better than the many official King adaptations churned out for the uninitiated. And I am sincerely glad that this old guy is still around to experience it.

I grew up in a time when there were no cell phones, no Internet, and no Netflix. When I was young, we had only three TV channels, and you either watched what was on or rented a movie from a video store. Though it seems hard to believe now, you couldnt just watch what you felt like at the push of a button. Stranger Things takes me back to that time of my life in many ways, albeit with two not insignificant differences. First: There were no monsters in my hometown. And second: My meals were considerably more modest than the hearty, all-American fare you find in Hawkins, Indiana.

The latter was largely due to the fact that my mother was plainly the worlds worst cook. For instance, she was firmly convinced that it was enough to simply throw Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, or asparagus into warm water and then serve them up twenty minutes later in exactly the same way, without salt, without sauce, and with overly mushy, unseasoned potatoes that I wouldnt even feed to a pig. It would be a blessing for my brother and me to come home from school and find delicious ravioli from a can, nothing home-cooked. And whenever there was a special occasion to have takeout roast chicken, it was like Christmas and Easter had come at once. Far be it from me to speak ill of the dead, but the facts are the facts. And the truth is that my mother was no Mrs. Wheeler. She didnt spend the whole day in the kitchen to lovingly serve up hearty casseroles, delicious pies, and succulent roasts to her loved ones. Whats more, there was nothing like Starcourt Mall in our area, where you could get burgers, fried chicken, or milkshakes in an ultra-trendy, food court for cheap. So I can justifiably say that I wasnt all that into the culinary arts when I was younger.

Although that changed later, it didnt make me a gourmet; nor did I become a second Paul Bocuse. But that suits me just fine as the food culture in Stranger Things is as firmly rooted in the 1980s as everything else in the series. Its no coincidence that most of the dishes in this book are so easy to make that even Dustin could pull it off, blindfolded, while hitting on Suzie (or trying to).

Cooking neednt be complicated, and these recipes show how true this is. Theres no fine-dining on Stranger Things. The closest we get to highbrow cuisine in the series is Hopper waiting for Joyce at a fancy restaurant and then getting hopelessly drunk out of sheer frustration at being stood up by her. Here, youll find plenty of snacks, fast-food favorites, sweet treats, ice cream, and lots of other unhealthy things to make you throw your diet out the window.

Thats enough of that for now. I think its quite clear what this is all about. Its about food. Its about the eighties. And, of course, its about Stranger Things. And just like Stranger Things, this book is about one thing above all else: having fun. For me, at least, this project was an absolute dream, and not just because of my morbidly infantile imagination. To a large extent, it was because of all the great people who accompanied me throughout the journey and made this book possible in one way or another, whether theyre actually aware of it or not. Detailed acknowledgements are at the end of this book.

Now, without further ado, comes the main attraction: more than sixty terrific recipes inspired by a fantastic series that will, hopefully, turn your (culinary) world upside down.

Sincerely,

Very much in the style of Jim Hopper, these delicious doughnuts invite you to sit back and contemplate over a cup of coffee, and not just at the Hawkins police station.

INGREDIENTS

MAKES 1215

• 4 cups (1 lb 2 oz/500 g) pastry flour plus more for rolling out dough
• 2 tsp (7 g) instant yeast