HKFE

At the Nightmare Cafe, it is policy to spit in the soup before serving. You can spill anything you like--they just leave it there. It's a 4-skull restaurant where you might find "Turtle Eyes in Mud Sauce" as a nightly special. Or "Salad of Rotting Leaves with Warm Slugs." If you find these raunchy recipes revolting, avoid this pop-up book and its companion, Nightmare Hotel, like the plague! Each fabulously engineered pop-up spread in Alex Henry and Antje V. Stemm's Nightmare Cafe reveals more gastronomical delights, prepared by Chef Blister who likes his kitchen very hot when cooking unnameable horrors. (Lift the pot lids at your own risk.) In this gloriously grotesque world, countless eyes peer out from myriad flaps, secret drawers with eyeball knobs open to reveal snails, the first-aid cabinet hides a chain saw, and envelopes containing removable fake money warn "Hands off!" The Nightmare Cafe is definitely the most freakishly friendly restaurant in town. Come on in! Octavia will show you to your table... (Ages 6 and older) --Karin Snelson