- He Said, She Said (Sun., Jan. 24)
- Hanky Panky: Writing The Erotic* (Wed., Feb. 10)
- Writing Pad Movie Club: Anti-Valentine’s Day Class (Sat., Feb. 20)
- 10 Minutes in Heaven: Cook Up A 10 Minute Play (Sun., Feb. 28)
Writing Prompt: Make a list of foods that you are (or were) addicted to. This can be a fictional list too for characters in your project. Include foods that you overdosed on (e.g. my husband ate too many squishy, fruity gummy bears as a kid, now he won't eat them at all).
Pick one item on your list and write about it for ten minutes. Make sure to include a sensory detail in your writing (taste, smell, touch, sound, sight). Now post your writing in the comments of this blog--you could win a free class!
Comment on this blog! What are the food(s) you are (or were) addicted to? Or, you could write about a food product that a character in your book or screenplay is addicted to. A sentence or a mini-story will do.
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10 comments:
I'm addicted to gummy bears. I love to bite their squishy heads off. Plus they are artificial fruit fantastic! I'm glad Jeff doesn't like 'em--more for me!
Marilyn
I've just re-united with a long lost love: Golden Grahams cereal -- albeit, the organic kind from whole foods, but just because they come in an enviro-friendly bag doesn't mean they aren't filled with cinnamon-sugary goodness. I'm not sure I'll be able to save them for the kids...
It's junior year of high school, and I spend every Sunday afternoon volunteering at the local Science Museum. What can I say...college applications are coming.
But this particular Sunday, I've forgotten to bring a lunch. I'm far too penurious to visit the cafe, so I am starving. I head to the breakroom for my 15 minutes, and there, glorious and overloaded, is a snack tray left over from a meeting. There's ranch dressing, and a mound of broccoli florets. There's salsa, and an even larger mound of tortilla chips.
I dive in with the enthusiasm only a hungry teen can demonstrate for free food. I'm dipping the broccoli in the ranch, the chips in the salsa...and then, brilliance hits. Broccoli in salsa! Chips in ranch! I'm tag-teaming florets in an ungodly duet of creamy ranch and watery salsa.
I stuff myself until I am actually full, all on chips, broccoli, salsa, and ranch dressing. It's around this time, as I head back onto the floor, that I begin to realize I am feeling a little unpleasant. I must've eaten most of that tub of ranch. And I mixed ranch and salsa? Dipped broccoli in salsa?? What was I thinking??
I spend the rest of the afternoon unable to get the flavor of cheap ranch dressing out of my mouth. But the salad-dressing gods still aren't done with me. To this day, whenever I see ranch dressing, all I can think of is raw broccoli drowning in bottled salsa.
“Yessss, it’s Roll-top today.” I remember well his small, deep-set eyes, his domed nose that from the side looked like it had simply been pulled down from between his eyes like the cover of a roll-top desk. I remember the brown-orange stains littering his otherwise snow-white apron and the cellophane kitchen gloves he was forced to wear that seemed always to be trying to squirm off those skinny fingers. I even remember the copper Sedona bracelet he wore on his left wrist and thinking, “wow, people actually do buy things from the ‘Sky Mall’ catalog!” Though I never exchanged more than a few select words with “Roll-top,” as I named him, I remember all of these details for one simple reason: he, of all the servers at the General Tso’s chicken line at Owens dining hall, doled out the most generous portions.
At least 10 times a week for four solid months I found myself craning my neck to see who it was manning the General Tso’s station. There were times, depending on the length of the line and who I was with, that if it happened to be “Pork Rind” doing the serving, I would change my mind and head for the cheese steak line (for it was Pork Rind – who got his nickname because I ran into him at 7-11 once purchasing nothing but five bags of that very thing – who gave the meagerest portions). But more often than not, I would suffer it anyway and stick with Tso’s. I was hooked. That perfect combination of a little sweet, a little tangy, and a little spicy worked its way through my taste buds down into my bloodstream, daring any other craving to step up and tango with the General.
The love affair eventually cooled as I began to forget what vegetables tasted like and close friends suggested this might be cause for concern – that, and the bloated feeling following one of Roll-top’s portions became harder to ignore once it ceased to wear off after an hour or so. I never stopped eating Tso’s altogether, of course, and I look back on those four months fondly. Still, anytime I receive a particularly hefty, or scant helping at a restaurant, I can’t help exclaiming inwardly, “Ah, Roll-top!,” or “Ugh… Pork Rind.”
My mother used to fry okra on the stove in a shallow skillet full of hot oil. The pieces would cook until the breading was so crispy it was barely attached. She'd drain the pieces in a cheap baking tin lined with paper towels, the soft, okra pieces, seeds and crumbs sticking to the oily paper.
Oh my goodness! I blinked, and there were four fabulous stories on this part of the blog.
Thank you so much for commenting, folks! :)
I will give you likes and remembers by this weekend.
Marilyn
Anonymous--I love the longing in your Golden Grahams piece! I love the words, "long lost love," and "cinnamon-sugary goodness." I also love the new twist on Golden Grahams: organic Golden Grahams!
Alyssa--I love the description of that tray, "glorious and overloaded." I love that "ungodly duet of creamy ranch and watery salsa." I really enjoyed how you described the ravenous hunger of the teen in your piece! It was so much fun to read.
Marilyn
Clay--what yummy Chinese food descriptions! I love the "sweet, tangy, and spicy" that worked it's way into the narrator's bloodstream. I loved the descriptions of the "domed nose" and the brown and orange stains on the apron.
Kyle--I want to eat the Okra in your piece now! I love the "breading" that "was so crispy it was barely attached" and the "cheap baking tin lined with paper towels." I'm there in that kitchen along with your narrator.
Thanks, everyone for your stories. They are mouthwatering scrumpdiliadocious! ;)
Marilyn
Kristina,
Your post is scrumptious and hilarious! I love the super salad and the blue cheese dressing! I also loved the cinammon rolls that stole the show and that the cafeteria food could take on Cinnabon. Great!
Marilyn
I have an addictive personality and a compulsion do repeat habits. Devouring cookies with warm chocolate chip morsels is one of these obsessions. When I was a little boy my mother would reward good behavior by baking me cookies. She wasn't a psychology major or anything like that, but she seemed to understand the basic Pavlovian principles of behavior psychology. Obviously I liked the reward because the cookies tasted damn good and the sweet taste of cooked egg, sugar and butter is something I would never forget. Although it all started with toll house and homemade chocolate chip cookies I branched off and ventured on to taste many different varieties of cookies and loved everyone of them. This includes but not limited to Rainbow chip, oatmeal raisin, ginger, Keebler's, Oreos and many more exotic treats. I don't know why I love cookies so much, perhaps it's because I find comfort when eating them and the sense that somewhere deep down I'm always searching for that sense of reward and praise for good behavior. I only eat cookies at night after my meal, so in a way it's a reward to myself. "You've completed another day, good job, now have a cookie....or seven."
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