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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#100: Breaking Bread

One of the most intimate things you can do with someone is sit down to eat together. The idea of friends and foes, families and strangers breaking bread has been a recurring theme in art and literature for a very long time. It’s something that can bring us together against the steepest of odds; to quote Oscar Wilde, “after a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations”. But things don’t always end quite so harmoniously — food fights, anyone?

 

This week, we’re reflecting on the joys (or pains) of eating together or making a meal. Whether the dinner table is a place for communion or conflict for your characters, I look forward to sitting down to a hearty portion of food-themed stories with you. Bon appétit!

This week's prompts

Start or end your story with two characters sitting down for a meal.

Middle School – 264 stories

Write a story where a meal or dinner goes horribly wrong.

Thanksgiving – 202 stories

Write about a group of strangers — or people who know each other, but may as well be strangers — eating together.

Fluff – 153 stories

Write about a character preparing a meal for somebody else.

Fluff – 157 stories

Write a story that involves a secret or magic ingredient.

Halloween – 116 stories

Stories

“Dig in!” by Pahani Wijeratne

Submitted to Contest #100

“You can put that hideous looking container of whatsoever near her grave!”My great aunt that disliked my mother and I very much exclaimed, while patting her gradma-ish dress, and walking farther away from me with a disgusted look.I was still, a little hurt actually from her mean comment. But, I didn’t care because she meant nothing to me, let alone my life. I forced a subtle smile and walked at a slow pace to the sculpted stone. A number of thoughts instantly rushed through my mind.28 June 1999”Mmm! That smells de-licious, ma!” I said while ...

3 comments 3
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“Michael” by T.H. Sherlock

Submitted to Contest #100

She never looks at me at dinner time anymore. Instead, her eyes are cast downwards, half-moon lids shrouding the truth as her fingertips deftly dance across the screen of her phone. Occasionally she puts the phone down and picks up her fork to toy with the half-eaten vegetables swimming in gravy. She does not finish the meal but shifts the food mindlessly around her plate whilst the glass of wine remains untouched beside her.I know the wine is expensive. The extravagance is a cursory nod to our anniversary, and the cork leaves red stains on ...

17 comments 17
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“Meeting My Parents” by Victoria MacDonald

Submitted to Contest #100

As a young woman in my early twenties, I was desperate for my parents to meet and approve of Peter. I was euphoric, madly in love. My mother, a no-nonsense psychiatrist, was harder to win over than my father, so I focused my rehearsed speech on her.“I hope you like him, Mom. He is very polite and very kind to me. And he told me he loves me. Isn’t that wonderful?”“I see. Well, I’m preparing a Thanksgiving dinner. You can bring Peter if you want. Be here by 6:00 on Sunday.”“I’ll ask him. Thanks, Mom.” Her invitation provoked a wave of anxiety....

6 comments 6
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“Dinner Disaster” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #100

           Sometimes, fate has a twisted way of bringing people together. Such was the case for a couple that I know.            My best friend, Ron, spent most of his teens and early twenties dating girls that he would meet randomly in shopping malls, the gym, and even at weddings. In fact, that is where he met Jessica.            It was our friend, Chase’s wedding. He was part ...

4 comments 4
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“One Perfect Day” by Katharine Widdows

Submitted to Contest #100

TRIGGER WARNING: Terminal illness, murder, suicide..................................................................................................... ‘Oh Frank, I’m so sorry. It’s the cancer that keeps Elsa in bed some days.’ The Davidson house was on my afternoon round and I tried to explain this to the old gentleman about once a week.‘Cancer?’Sometimes he would cry, this was one of those times. Tears ran down the sides of his nose, he dabbed at them half-heartedly with a crumpled hanky.‘Let me put the kettle on.’ He said with a shak...

2 comments 2
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“how to cook adobo” by Aisa M

Submitted to Contest #100

My cooking is a lousy business. My mother makes it worse.No one is born a great cook. One learns by doing. So I don't understand why mother expected me to know already what to do in the kitchen.My kitchen is as tidy as the ones in the Ikea showroom. In lovely green and an environmentally conscious themed kitchen. For weeks, the pans have not touched anything but thin air, and the most useful thing in this place is the microwave.And then mother calls me and shatters my completely perfect circle of life. She's coming.So here I am, in the middl...

9 comments 9
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“Best Served Cold” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #100

I couldn’t get the grin off my face. Years of lying through my teeth had paid off. Seventeen years ago he killed my daughter. He wasn't charged. He denied the whole thing even though my son saw him do it. No one believed a Jake. He’d suffered from delusions all of his life. He’d talk about the angels and the demons as if they were in the room with us. That’s why we stopped going to church. As soon as we did people said my boy was possessed. Jake was a good boy. Jake had a baby’s blue eyes, an innocent smile. His brown hair was alway...

7 comments 7
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“Eye of Newt” by Winston Smith

Submitted to Contest #100

Coriander. Cardamom. Turmeric. Saffron. Most of the spices and herbs were labeled. They all had little handwritten scraps tied around the necks of their glass shakers. But one bottle set apart from the others. It was a little, crystalline thing which held some brown or yellow spice that I couldn’t place. I watched my host, Inma, use the unlabeled bottle multiple times as she cooked our dinner. I counted when and where she sprinkled that certain spice, wary of its contents. I feared she might poison me. Inma swayed and hummed in front of th...

4 comments 4
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“Last Refuge of the Incompetent” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #100

Gunfire rattled intermittently outside the conference room. Whenever the shots sounded the ministers looked at the doorway, hoping that wasn’t the moment the fight would spill inside. The tables and lecterns they normally sat behind had been pushed against the door to serve as a barricade. Allen Willard knew that the plywood and plastic would be no more than a moments protection against the bullets of an assault rifle. As a tall, skinny man, he wasn’t much of a target but that was little comfort to him.      &nb...

4 comments 4
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“Grave Danger” by JASON PARKER

Submitted to Contest #100

Appolonia and Basia were meant to be one person, yet fate had cruelly rent them in two. Each one craved the other, spilling sour tears when circumstance thrust distance betwixt them and bouncing like excited pups upon their reunion. They exchanged wordless secrets with little more than a look, and it appeared to everyone around them that the pair knew things; things they shouldn’t. All in the house would lower their voices when the girls were nearby and none dared leave their bed-chamber unlocked. The twins—with their silvery hair, pasty ski...

6 comments 6
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“A Last Meal” by Everett Silvers

Submitted to Contest #100

Necroth walked up the hill with his usual arrogant swagger. He was tall, handsome, with dark hair and eyes that were like black pits. His cloak fluttered in the wind, shifting between blacks and greys and screaming faces. The rest of his clothes were black, tunic, boots, breeches, he had the look of a man who would do evil with a will. He soon arrived at the top of the hill where a table, seemingly carved out of black stone, sat and was set with a meal fit for a king.There were roast foul and even a boar with a bright red apple in his mouth....

8 comments 8
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“Candied Yams Amid Controversy” by Shavon Evelyn

Submitted to Contest #100

Candied Yams Amid ControversyBy: Shavon C. Evelyn           We stared at each other for an interminable moment as the candied yams congealed between us. Widened eyes met lids lowered in shame. Aunt Glenda glared from face to face around the table trying to determine who knew it first. Who held the secret and for how long? How many members of the family that she held so dear had come to her home for Sunday dinners knowing her life was built on a lie. Eight sets of eyes stared back in sile...

3 comments 3
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“That Restaurant ” by Nike S

Submitted to Contest #100

The whole restaurant filled with the aroma when he turned off the stove and served his delicious dish. I was waiting for the dish eagerly; its aroma had already made my mouth watery. As soon as dish was served, I jumped over to get the taste. The first bite was creamy and dissolved easily, I could feel the each and every spice at every taste bud of my tongue. Wow! I shouted. (It was the years old restaurant the most popular of its time only restaurant known for using ancient Japanese skills to prepare food. However, it had lost somewhere wi...

2 comments 2
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“A Dash of Rosemary” by Lindsey Pope

Submitted to Contest #100

A hint of oregano. A pinch of basil. A dash of rosemary. As the water boils and the bubbles rise to the surface, I find myself lost in staring at them rising and popping. A bead of sweat forms on my forehead and trickles down to my cheek, waking me back into reality. ***                My college roommate Molly had an infectious laugh and bubbly personality that everyone gravitated toward. We were clearly opposites as I was more of the quiet introverted type.  Du...

4 comments 4
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“Thanksgiving at Elliot Farm” by 𝕗 𝕚 𝕠 𝕟 𝕒 .🌈

Submitted to Contest #100

Claire Elliot stared at the crumpled-up shopping list she held in her hand. Sighing, she shoved the list into her vest and glanced down at the freezer case of turkeys, each with their plastic skin glistening in the stark overhead lights, vibrant stickers advertising the weight of the bird. For a second her hand lingered over the biggest one, but she quickly picked up the smallest size they had at the end. No use in spending all that money when it’s just me. Looking around the store, Claire felt a pang of something heavy, hitting her like a ...

0 comments 0
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$50

Prize money

893

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 02, 2021 EST

Won by Rayhan Hidayat 🏆

Title: mie goreng

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

Prompts | Many Hands | 2024-09

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