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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#228: Yummy

I always find it fascinating how food captivates us; not just as a practical necessity, but as a cornerstone of our life experiences. Food can embody cultural heritage, traditions, and the art of sharing. It’s a medium through which we build and nurture social connections — be it cooking for lifelong loved ones or nervously gathering around the cafeteria table on the first day of school. Eating can also elicit all kinds of emotions, like pleasure, guilt, and desire. It can be a medium for new experiences, creative expression, or sometimes a bridge to our past.

In light of food's powerful role in our lives, this week’s prompts will explore how it may influence a character’s journey, and shape their life experience.

This week's prompts

Start or end your story in a bustling street food market.

Narrative – 24 stories

Include in your story a scene about a family's last meal before a significant change.

Dramatic – 58 stories

Write a story in which a character eats something that they shouldn’t have eaten.

Mystery – 64 stories

Write a story in which a certain food makes your character travel back in time.

Character – 51 stories

Write a story in which a character cooks up something to impress someone.

Romance – 34 stories

Stories

“Asking Price” by Jason Cannon

Submitted to Contest #228

The house itself was brick, one of those post-war shotguns, blocks and blocks of which had sprung up in insatiable suburbs like mushrooms devouring a rotting log. Two bed, one bath, partially finished basement, decent plumbing and wiring, and a kitchen in need of a facelift. Remnants of an abandoned garden and clumsy, DIY paver deck. Sturdy, weather-proofed wooden fences, separating this shotgun from its fraternal twins on either side. Newer windows, one with a screen initially ripped by a storm-blown branch and then torn wide by an escaping...

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“Blue Ridge Rabbits” by Dorothy Castle

Submitted to Contest #228

Some people grind words up in their mouths, clenching their jaws tight enough to crack a molar, scraping their teeth together while they sleep, swallowing the sawdusty grit of their own mouthy bones. Rae didn’t do that. Grinding her teeth meant making a face, so she churned them up in her stomach instead. Ma had stopped taking her to doctors – they said she had stomachaches because she was anxious. Now Pepcid repeated, week to week, on Ma’s grocery list, right beside milk and cheese and other weekly, stomach-achey thi...

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“Parvum Sedatio” by Sam B

Submitted to Contest #228

The old rope rasped against the wood as Lenora cranked the handle at the stone well, her foot braced in the dirt, knuckles white. The young girl pulled an oak bucket into the air and unhooked it before resting it on the ground. It overflowed with clear spring water; the puddle it made trickled into the hole in the tip of her soft leather boot. She stepped back and shook her left leg. Lifting her pointed hat, she tucked wayward strands of chestnut brown hair behind her oversized ears and wiped her brow with the back of her hand. Subdued sun...

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“Sweet Rumman” by Steffen Lettau

Submitted to Contest #228

Author's note: This isn't the most accurate depiction of Arabic mythological lore, it is a liberally creative take."Have you gone to that new garden market downtown?" inquired Lizzy Lonnico."A new garden market? I didn't even visit the old one", Jerry Spinton answered. "It's rather spendy, especially before the winter season.""Oh, no!" Lizzy proclaimed. "Not this one. It's run by a rich family straight from Iran. All the natural fruits and vegetables, no GMOs, no additional sugars or salts, and cleaned to eat. Oh, and the best part, Jerry, i...

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“A Grocery Store Memory” by Tori Winterrose

Submitted to Contest #228

Arthur yanks on his mittens and quickly rubs his palms together in a pathetic attempt to generate some warmth. He wonders (for at least the hundredth time) why he hasn’t moved away from this godforsaken town with a windchill that makes Antarctica look like paradise. His car door creaks open as the cold December air sucks his breath away and freezes his nose hairs. Careful not to slip on the black ice in the parking lot, he places his boots firmly onto the ground and hoists himself up out of the car. A mother and her three you...

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“Pirouette” by PJ Town

Submitted to Contest #228

There was once a little woodsmaid, made of wood. She lived with her father – a carpenter – in a wood cabin on the edge of … a forest.Her father and his wife always wanted to have children but were unable to, for all the typical reasons. After his wife died, the old carpenter became very lonely; he only ever saw people when they came from the nearby towns and villages to commission his work, so any relationships he had were strictly business.Gregório – for that was the carpenter’s name – had been so devoted to his wife, and they’d been so hap...

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“Potato Soup Forever” by Lauren Dawn Miller

Submitted to Contest #228

The watery potato soup echoed with each drop that landed in the chipped porcelain bowl, a somber counterpoint to the heavy silence that blanketed the room. The dim light from the bedside lamp cast elongated shadows on the walls, mirroring the skeletal figure lying motionless in the bed. This was our last meal together, a final act of love before the curtain fell on the stage of our shared life. My father, once a titan of strength and resilience, now lay before me a mere shadow of the man who had built our world brick by brick. His hands, onc...

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“Eating In” by Martin Tulton

Submitted to Contest #228

Later life undoubtedly brings its share of travails, but one of its pleasures is surely a slowing of the pace. The urgency of youth, or the sheer size of the task mountain represented by home, work and family in mid-life, gives way to a more measured ability to notice, well, life. David sipped his wine and read those lines again. He had been focussed on his phone, only dimly aware of the warmth of the sun and the chatter of other customers scattered round the pub garden. The remains of a meal in front of him brought a realisation that he’...

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“Mock Apple Pie- yummy” by Clara 'CC' Carlyle

Submitted to Contest #228

Mock Apple Pie- yummyBank of Baltimore11-08-22 Balance $25.55Taco Tuesday, that's what Grandma calls today. I call it Game Day. You see, every two weeks I play a game with myself. If I manage to exist for two weeks without my checking account overdrawn; I order takeout from a fancy place. I hope one day I can live better than paycheck-to-paycheck. Party for one. It's hard to choose between Chinese or steak, fajitas or wings. Yum! I want it all. I'm so hungry for something besides Honey Nut Cheerios. Sushi sounds delicious.&...

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“Feed Your Head” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #228

Feed Your Head In a dreary, gray, official-looking room was a small group of unsmiling people who were about to change where and how one of their number was going to live. That person was a man named Jim who was in his early mid 70s, and was seated in an uncomfortable chair, while all the others stood. He had a blank stare on his face. The others were those who had made the decision for him. They included a doctor, a counsellor, a nurse, a female psychologist, his wife Alice and a young man, their son, George. They ...

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“What Was in That Batter?” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #228

I sat with anticipation in the West Ocean City Breakfast Club, waiting for Sam, my waiter, to make his entrance with a plate of fluffy, steaming goodness topped off by the rich, brown sugary liquid designed to lift me out of my late summer funk. Every year on the Saturday before Labor Day I had made it my tradition to end my vacation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with a trip to the area’s best morning eatery and treat myself to a heaping platter of Delmarva pancakes. This time, though, my annual journey would lift me into a world I could nev...

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“Fatto con amore” by Rebecca Detti

Submitted to Contest #228

Do you remember that advert from the eighties? You know the one, advertising canned baked beans or maybe it was a toy kitchen? I can’t really remember the point of it or what they were selling. All I remember is the sweet little girl waking up early on what I suspect must have been Father’s Day. Creeping downstairs so that her unsuspecting parents didn’t realise what culinary delight she was preparing. She puts some cold beans on a plastic plate and adds what looks like a huge jam- sponge roll next to it. I honestly don’t know whose decision...

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“The Day I Learned I Was Nobody” by Rene Volpi

Submitted to Contest #228

One day, wandering about as usual, I ended up in a street food market where I learned one of my most valuable life lessons. I learned that self-examination is one of the hardest things humans can do. And that it takes a lot of effort to recognize and accept our faults. ~o~ I felt invincible when growing up. Many of us think that way. What could go wrong when you're 19? We are foolishly unstoppable. We know nothing, and yet we believe we are so bright and so able that we can become too full of ourselves, much to our detrimen...

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“Betty Towers” by Hilary Yelvington

Submitted to Contest #228

Betty Towers was 85 years old. She’d lived in the same house her entire life, eaten the same breakfast every day — scrambled eggs and a glass of orange juice — worn the same reliable Mary Jane shoes for the past several decades, and loved doing her crossword puzzle every morning. She was what people referred to as “a real character” and “a spitfire,” which was another way of politely acknowledging the fact that Betty Towers didn’t give two figs about anyone else’s feelings. Her taciturn nature was infamous around town, and she freely lo...

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“Gourmet Tastes ” by Apeman 316

Submitted to Contest #228

Gourmet Tastes “Alec, that was the most amazing meal you have ever cooked.” Heidi said as she took a sip of wine just after swallowing the last bite of food her husband of fifteen years had just prepared for her. “Ah but that’s not all yet, you can’t forget dessert.” Alec said as he smiled back at his wife as he cleared the plate from in front of her then disappeared into the kitchen. “I just have to run to the freezer in the garage for a second.” “Really sweetie you went all out today. This is by far your best cook...

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$250

Prize money

231

Contest entries

88

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 15, 2023 EST

Won by Molly Jenkinson 🏆

Title: Cooking Lessons

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!

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