Every week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (thank you, Rochelle!) hosts a flash fiction challenge, to write a complete story, based on a photoprompt, with a beginning, middle and end, in 100 words or less. Post it on your blog, and include the Photoprompt and Inlinkz on your page. Link your story URL. Then the fun starts as you read other peoples’ stories and comment on them!
PHOTO PROMPT © DALE ROGERSON
Good Food
“I hate meat that’s half gristle,” said Jeremy, pulling yet another piece out of his mouth.
“I hate under-cooked food,” replied David, stabbing ineffectually at a boiled potato. “Why don’t we give College Hall a miss tomorrow and eat out?”
Next day there was snow, unseasonably early. An east wind gnawed at them as they trudged to the restaurant.
“Here we are,” said Jeremy.
The napkins were starched and the wine glasses were crystal. The food was delicious. It is perhaps unkind to note the unmanly moistness of their eyes as they devoured their first good meal in a month.
Autumn Leaves 
Dear Penny,
I’m not sure I’d call it unmanly for a fella to weep for joy after eating such terrible fare. 😉 Love this. Bon apetit.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle
Thank you for reading and commenting. That meal was a summit experience to be sure!
Shalom
Penny
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Makes me yearn for a good meal out! Hopefully we will be allowed one soon enough.
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Dear Iain
Thank you for reading and commenting. I have a voucher for dinner for two at an excellent restaurant – it’s definitely worth a Michelin star. I had been planning to celebrate my wedding anniversary there – on March 31st. Oh, bother!
I hope you get a good meal out soon, and that it more than fulfils your dreams!
With very best wishes
Penny
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Our wedding anniversary was last week too. We settled for a pizza delivery once the kids were in bed!
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Even a pizza delivery sounds nice at the moment…I hope you enjoyed it!
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It wasn’t quite a romantic evening, but the food was good 🙂
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Not unkind at all. That’s what authors do — poke their characters
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Dear Neil
Thank you for reading and commenting. I think Jeremy and David were enjoying their meal too much to notice my poke!
With best wishes
Penny
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to keep one’s sanity, it helps to look forward to something like a nice dinner. 🙂
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Dear Plaridel
Thank you for reading and commenting. You’re right; when we’re cut off like this it’s good for our mental health to have pleasures to anticipate!
With very best wishes
Penny
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Even the toughest fella can be felled by a good steak. It’s genetic.
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Dear Na’ama
Thank you for reading and commenting. Teehee, yes! The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Or, as another wise woman wrote, “Kissing don’t last, cooking do!”
With very best wishes
Penny
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ha!
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Stereotypes need to be abolished. Nothing wrong with a good eye-cleansing!
Lovely tale, Penny.
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Dear Dale
Thank you for reading and for your kind comments. I agree that we need to minimise gender stereotypes. That said, there’s definitely some biology driving the different ways men and women think!
With very best wishes
Penny
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This is true!
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Home cooking has its limits! Especially if youre the cok!
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Cook i meant!
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Especially if I’m the cook? I’m an excellent cook! Teehee – sorry, I couldn’t resist teasing you. You’re right – it’s always a pleasure to eat someone else’s cooking, especially in a smart restaurant where they make a fuss of you!
Thank you for reading and commenting, Andi.
With very best wishes
Penny
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I yearn to have a proper meal in a restaurant too. But that’s going to have to wait.
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Dear Shweta
Thank you for reading and commenting. Eating out is a great pleasure. I hope you get your wish and are able to enjoy a proper meal in a restaurant soon.
With very best wishes
Penny
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It was my pleasure. I hope so too, Penny. Stay safe. Take care.
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I think I’d have something in my eye, too 😉
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Dear Anthony
Thank you for reading and commenting. Good food is such a mood booster, isn’t it?
With very best wishes
Penny
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A good meal can do wonders for a person, but eating at a place with starched napkins is surely costly when compared to College Hall. Sounds like it may have been worth it though!
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Dear Russell
Thank you for reading and for your droll comment. You are absolutely right that it was an expensive treat – especially as the meal in college was already paid for – but it was worth every penny!
With very best wishes
Penny
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I might be weeping over my coffee and cake in a cafe when it next happens…not for a while yet!
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Dear Miranda
Thank you for reading and commenting. Coffee and cake sounds lovely! I hope the day you can enjoy them safely comes quickly. Personally I’m looking forward to an Indian meal…
With very best wishes
Penny
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Thanks for writing such an upbeat story! I loved all the descriptions.
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Dear Lish
Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m glad you enjoyed its upbeat nature. It’s true, too! Well, more or less…
With very best wishes
Penny
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Well I think they can be forgiven for the moist eyes! Nicely done, Penny.
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Dear Susan
Thank you for reading and commenting. And thank you for forgiving Jeremy and David their moist eyes!
With very best wishes
Penny
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Nothing wrong with tears of pleasure after enduring such nasty fare. I believe with all my heart that, since we must eat, we should enjoy every morsel!
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Dear Linda
Thank you for reading and commenting so kindly. Oh, I so agree that we should enjoy every morsel. I have a cottage pie just about to go into the oven and I’m enjoying it in anticipation!
With very best wishes
Penny
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I love cottage pie. Can I come? 🙂
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School dinners, college food – all part of the process of toughening us up!
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Dear Liz
Thank you for reading and for your entertaining comment. Toughen us up? Hmmmm. What do you suppose chicken fed on fish meal tastes like? How bad must food be before students are bringing in curry sauce from the takeaway to disguise the taste? 😉
With very best wishes
Penny
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College men! 😀 Not so tough. Good one!
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Dear Eugenia
Thank you for reading and commenting. Not even as tough as the meat served in college!
With best wishes
Penny
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You have reminded me of the horror stories my son told of his cafeteria food at very small town college up north. The closest store was a convenience store and a gas station. Without a car he also had to hoof it wherever he went. I can believe they would cry at a good meal. Thanks for taking me back, Penny!
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Dear Jade
Thank you for reading and commenting. It was fun to hear that college food in the USA was as bad as in the UK!
With very best wishes
Penny
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Penny, you are welcome 🙂
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After the hell of the previous meals and the obstacles to getting there, they certainlly deserved their fine meal and I suspect it was all the better for that. Nice piece, Penny
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Dear Michael
Thank you for reading and commenting. You’re very indulgent towards them!
With very best wishes
Penny
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Trudging to the restaurant in the bitter cold must have made the food taste even better. Tears of gratitude know no gender.
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Dear Mags
Thank you for reading and commenting. Yes, the warm ambience of the restaurant really complemented the quality of the food!
With very best wishes
Penny
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You’re welcome, Penny.
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Snow, bad food and then, finally, Shangri-La! Also, too, “hunger is the best sauce.”
Nice story, Penny. 🙂
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Dear Kent
Thank you for reading and commenting. Yes, all the obstacles added up to a memorable experience when the good food arrived!
With best wishes
Penny
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If you don’t eat out very often, then the experience truly becomes something to remember. I’m so looking forward to my first meal out in months. And not unmanly, the moistness of their eyes. Appreciation sometimes can be overwhelming.
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Dear Sandra
Thank you for reading and for your kind comments. I’m looking forward to eating out again, too. I love food, and some of my most cherished memories are of meals out.
With very best wishes
Penny
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I think crying over good food is very manly… as long as you are stoic on anything else.
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Dear Bjorn
Thank you for reading and commenting. You must love food a great deal to feel it excuses the emotion showed by those two lads!
With very best wishes
Penny
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A month of lack-luster food sounds horrible! I’m glad they got a worthy meal! Nice story!
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Dear Nan
Thank you for reading and commenting. Jeremy and David enjoyed their meal a great deal!
With best wishes
Penny
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They must have enjoyed every morsel. Food is the best reward! Great story.
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Dear Forestwood
Thank you for reading and commenting. Yes, they enjoyed every morsel of food, and every mouthful of drink.
With best wishes
Penny
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👍
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