Now that Readercon is over for Eating the Fantastic—you’ve already listened to the James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel episodes recorded there, haven’t you?—it’s time to head to Helsinki for the 75th World Science Fiction Convention.

I managed to record five episodes while in Finland, with the first being lunch at Kaarna Baari & Keittiö, which advertises itself as serving Finnish food with a Scandavian twist. I must admit, though, that I’m not familiar enough with either of those cuisines to know exactly where they’d converge on a culinary Venn diagram. I do know, however, that the food was excellent, and I was so impressed with what my guest and I ate there I later returned for dinner with my wife.

Joining me this episode was Johanna Sinisalo, who was one of this year’s Worldcon Guests of Honor. Her first novel, Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi (Not Before Sundown) won the Finlandia Prize for Literature in 2000 and the James Tiptree Jr. Memorial award in 2004. Her novel Enkelten vert (Blood of Angels) won the English PEN Award. She was a Nebula Award nominee in 2009 for “Baby Doll.” Her novel Auringon ydin (The Core of the Sun) recently won the 2017 Prometheus Award for Best Novel. She has won the Atorox award for the best Finnish-language SF short story seven times.

We discussed what she learned in advertising that helped her be a better writer, how Moomins helped set her on the path to becoming a creator, why she held off attempting a novel until she had dozens of short stories published, the reason the Donald Duck comics of Carl Barks were some of her greatest inspirations, the circuitous way being an actor eventually led to her writing the science fiction film Iron Sky, and more.

Here’s how you can munch on mushrooms with us—

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Here are the dishes we shared while chatting—

Slow-cooked salmon (42 degrees)
marinated in Napue gin, dill mayonnaise, and crumbled sweet and sour rye bread

Cold-smoked reindeer
reindeer mousse and Aby Manor organic crispbread

Char-grilled marinated whitefish
cucumber and dill gazpacho with traditional pickles and samphire

Mushroom salad of rufous milkcap
northern milkcap, chanterelles, and porcini mayonnaise

Yoghurt and cream pudding
blueberry ice cream, gluten-free oat crumble, and licorice-caramel sauce

Lingonberry chocolate cake
with licorice-caramel sauce

If you’re still hungry, come back in two weeks when my guest will Chen Qiufan, the most widely translated young writer of science fiction in China, with stories published in such venues as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and F&SF.

But remember—if two weeks between episodes is too long of a wait for you, and you’d like new episodes more often, you can join with others to someday shorten that gap by making a small recurring monthly donation over at Patreon. This will help subsidize some of the travel, bandwidth, equipment, and meal costs associated with the show. (Or, if that level of commitment’s not for you, you can make a one-time donation via Paypal.me.)

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I hope you’ll decide to join us next time!