Prepared Fresh

In the summer of 2001, a cameraman takes a job on a food-and-travel pilot called Prepared Fresh. His host is Vic Passawelle, a comedian looking for odd meals, local customs, and something better than another tourist stop.

After a safe run through Amish country, Vic talks the producer into sending them to China. They land far from any big city, without a guide, and start asking strangers for fresh food in the only words that seem to get through.

A boy with a rickshaw understands just enough English to warn them away. Vic pays him anyway, and the boy takes them to a broken-down shack where an old woman waits with a steaming pot and a smile full of bad teeth.

Below the shack is a candlelit room, a broth that smells too good, and a rule about turning the camera off. Vic and the cameraman sit down to eat with people who act like everything happening there is normal.

A cannibal horror short story by Kristopher Mallory, first published on r/nosleep in 2013.