A Place To Stay

The Cooking Festival

“It’s still not right!” Claire dropped her spoon on the plate with a clang, and rubbed her eyes out of frustration and exhaustion.

Cliff squirmed. “I think it tastes good, honey…”

Claire looked up. “But good isn’t enough. It has to taste amazing to win the cooking competition!” This year, she was all gung ho to win. Claire had been given a recipe by Muffy at the Blue Bar in Forget Me Not Valley. Muffy had found it on the floor one day when she opened the bar, and she said the whole place smelled heavenly. It was like a ghost had come in and made the curry, then left. A very strange occurrence, indeed.

So now Claire was in possession of the tattered piece of paper. It was titled “Finest Curry,” and it had been vexing her to no end. She pulled it out once more and complained about it. “I mean, come on! You have to make eight different colored curries, combine those into Rainbow Curry, THEN combine that with White Curry and …six different kinds of burnt food? Why? What does that even mean? How would that improve the taste?” She wailed and buried her face in her hands, letting the paper drift to the floor. She had tried to make it without the burnt foods, but it tasted bland. She added the burnt foods, but it tasted, well, burnt! She was just about at the end of her tether.

Cliff stood up and went behind his wife, stroking her back and murmuring comfortingly. “Your regular curry is delicious, honey. Why can’t you just enter that?”

Claire sighed. “It’s just not special enough. I really wanted to have an edge by using this mysterious recipe. But I give up. It looks like Doug will win again this year.”

A few days later, they attended the Cooking Festival. Everyone was waiting for the category to be announced, so that they could hurry home and get their dishes prepared. It was supposed to be a secret, but Manna had informed everyone that the categories were in a repeating pattern, and was most likely going to be recipes that were made in a pot. Everyone had hurried to plan out stew and curry dishes that would be sure to win. She crowd hushed as Gourmet approached the podium to speak. Claire stared at the man, mesmerized. He was morbidly obese, and absolutely odd looking. He had large, fish like lips, and he wore a strange purple suit complete with a tiny top hat. He cleared his throat, creating a sound similar to a walrus’ cry.

“The category this year will be…Oven!”

The crowd gasped. Manna looked around nervously and then scurried off home, not wanting anyone to unleash their wrath on her for spreading false information. Claire was stunned for a moment, then looked at her husband, a sly smile creeping across her face. “You know what this means, honey?” Cliff was already way ahead of her. “Chocolate mousse cake!” he cheered, then grinned and covered his mouth, not wanting any one else to steal Claire’s idea. They hurried home.

The kitchen became a mess of bowls and spoons as Claire rushed around, preparing the very difficult but very tasty cake. Cliff sat at the table and happily watched her work, eagerly consuming the remnants out of any bowl she gave him. She had set one such bowl down near the sink and quickly went on to another task. Cliff raised an eyebrow and approached it, lifting the spoon out and peering inside. Claire turned around just in time. “Cliff!” she squealed. “Don’t eat that! It’s just raw egg!”

Cliff dropped the spoon and pouted, sitting back down. “But I want more,” he whined.

Claire rolled her eyes. “You’ll have all you can eat pretty soon. The Gourmet only has to taste the cake, and then we’ll take home the leftovers.” Cliff just smiled at the thought of that.

Claire finally finished it, putting all she had into decorating it. Then they covered it the best they could, and Cliff carried it to Rose Square, Claire practically bouncing with joy alongside him. “I wonder what the prize will be? Oooh, I’m so excited!” she squealed.

They reached Rose Square and set the cake on the judging table. Claire eyed the other entries. Doug had submitted some kind of creamy looking white cake. Manna had submitted chocolate encrusted cookies. Lillia had submitted a strawberry pie. And then Karen…well, Karen’s entry was something. It was either a cake made of very dark chocolate, or it was burnt. Claire was pretty sure it was probably the latter.

Gourmet looked over the table approvingly, then set to work. He cut a large slice out of Doug’s cake. He chewed it enthusiastically, then gave his verdict. “Amazing! The frosting is light, yet creamy, and the cake is moist and delicious!” Doug beamed, and Gourmet moved on to Manna’s entry.

He gobbled down several of the cookies, then smiled. “Wonderful! How original! My mouth is singing!” Manna gave a little curtsey.

Gourmet then tasted Lillia’s strawberry pie. “Oh! Goodness! This screams of spring! The flavor bursts with the wholesome taste of sunshine! Excellent!”

Gourmet then approached Karen’s dish. His face wrinkled at the sight of it, his large fishlips drooping into a frown. “Karen…didn’t I tell you last year not to enter ever again?”

Karen pouted. “I’ve been practicing. It’s better. Try it, and you’ll see.”

Gourmet looked doubtful, then brought the fork to his lips. He gingerly put a small piece in his mouth, then roared and coughed in disgust. “You call that CAKE? What is in it?!”

Karen gaped at him. “No way! It should have been awesome!” She snatched a bit of it up with her fingers and shoved it in her mouth. She blanched, and then gagged. “Oh, geez…I guess the wine was a bad idea.”

Gourmet scoffed. “You put wine in this cake?”

Karen scowled at him. “No, I DRANK a lot of wine while I was making it! I put honey, cream, dumpling powder, chocolate, curry powder, oil, flour, relax tea leaves, and ground cabbage in it! Those are all good things!”

“Good things?! Why…why would you put cabbage or curry powder in a cake?” Gourmet wheezed.

Karen crossed her arms. “Like I said, the cabbage was ground up. The recipe called for coconut flakes, but I didn’t have any, so I figured that would give the same texture! Then the recipe called for allspice, which I didn’t have either, but I figured curry was A spice, so why wouldn’t it work?”

She and Gourmet glared back and forth at each other, then Gourmet finally cleared his throat. “Well, at any rate, young lady, it is a failure. Disqualified!” Karen huffed and stepped back into the crowd.

Gourmet moved on to Claire’s cake, which was the final entry. Claire wiggled nervously, waiting for his reaction. He cut himself a huge slice, then began chomping away. His eyes lit up, and he ate faster. He spoke to her with his mouth full of cake. “INCREDIBLE! My mouth is exploding in pleasure! Never before have I tasted chocolate in this way! You have made all my chocolate dreams come true!” Claire just smiled, flattered (but slightly creeped out), then started as the Gourmet cut himself another huge slice.

“W-w-wait! Aren’t you just supposed to taste it?” Claire stuttered.

Gourmet turned a stern, monocled eye on here. “I am a professional. I know what I’m doing.” He then proceeded to eat the entire cake. Cliff’s face dropped in despair, knowing that he would be getting no taste of it now.

Gourmet cleaned his chocolate covered face, and then burped. The crowd made a collective “Ewww…” and Gourmet gave them all a stern look, clearing his throat authoritatively. “The winner is….Claire!”

Claire was thrilled, throwing her arms up in the air, but she paused a moment to hug her husband, who was still devastated with shock that the whole cake was gone.

Mayor Thomas came forward. “And your prize is…a new coffee table!”

Claire cheered, but Cliff just choked back a sob. “I just wanted some cake…”