The fact the Nebula Awards were handed out in Pittsburgh earlier this year meant I was finally able to visit a restaurant I’d been wanting to check out for years. Which was excellent timing, because as it turned out, I got there only a week and a half before it closed.

Conflict Kitchen was based on a fascinating concept—only serve, on a rotating basis, the cuisines of countries with which the U.S. has been in conflict—such as Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Afghanistan, for example. Unfortunately, after seven years, Carnegie Mellon University decided it would no longer provide administrative support, and so Conflict Kitchen was forced to close its Schenley Plaza restaurant location, perhaps only temporarily, but maybe for good. Luckily, though, not before my guest and I were able to get there for an al fresco Palestinian meal.

Brooke Bolander was on Nebula ballot that weekend in the short story category for “Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies,” and is also on the current Hugo Awards ballot for that same story, one of the most talked-about tales of 2016. Her fiction, which has appeared in Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Nightmare, Uncanny, and other venues, has been honored by nominations for the Locus and the Theodore Sturgeon awards as well. The Only Harmless Great Thing will be published by Tor in 2018.

We discussed how she ended up as a writer rather than a paleontologist, why the videogame Ecco the Dolphin terrified her but taught her to love science fiction, her early days writing fan fiction, how anger over the electrocution of Topsy the elephant and the deaths of the “radium girls” inspired her newest novella, why she avoids rereading her own writing, what broke the writers block that had gripped her for several years, and more.

Here’s how you can join us for falafel—

1) Subscribe over at the iTunes store, where all 43 previous episodes are available for your audio edification.

2) Download the episode to the device of your choosing via Eating the Fantastic’s RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss.

3) Or give the episode a listen right here through the embed below.

And as always, here what my guest and I ate during our conversation—

Shawarma
(thinly sliced spit-roasted chicken, pickled vegetables, herbs, arugula, cucumber, tomato, and tahini sauce on Arabic bread)

Falafel
(crispy fried chickpea patties, pickled vegetables, herbs, arugula, cucumber, tomato, and tahini sauce on Arabic bread)

Imtabbal Ari’
(roasted butternut squash dip, with garlic, chili pepper, and olive oil)

Namoura
(semolina and yogurt cake soaked in sweet syrup, with toasted pine nuts)

Baqlawa
(layers of thin pastry filled with chopped nuts, soaked in syrup)

If after lunching with us, you’re still feeling peckish, come back on August 22nd when my guest will be A. Merc Rustad, whose new short story collection So You Want to Be a Robot, from Lethe Press, was called “unmissable” by Publishers Weekly. (I’d normally put up a new episode a few days earlier than that, but my trip to the Helsinki Worldcon is delaying it by a few days. Don’t worry, though—I’ll put up the following episode—with James Patrick Kelly—in less than the usual two weeks, so it will all balance out.)

Before you go, I’d like to remind you that if you enjoyed this episode, or any of the 43 previous episodes, you can join in helping me capture the voices of creators like Brooke, and perhaps get Eating the Fantastic to the point where I can bring you more episodes more frequently, by visiting Patreon. There are costs to producing these episodes, such as bandwidth, and equipment, and me getting guests to and from restaurants, and the food I use to loosen their tongues, and more, so if you’d like to cover some of that, and take part in some fun perks depending on your level of support, check it out.

But if that kind of ongoing commitment’s not for you, don’t worry—you can always tip Eating the Fantastic with a one-time donation of any size via Paypal.me. Since (as I told you last time) I had to unexpectedly replace my H4n Zoom recorder a couple of weeks ago after it died in the middle of doing an episode (grrrrr) with John Kessel during Readercon, I’d be grateful for any support you might be able to spare.

I hope you’ll be back next time!