Arnold And Cooking
Arnold loved the taste of properly cooked food but, lately, cooking depressed him. Creating meals from recipes was no longer fun. He had to eat, but what was he eating?
It started with food dyes. He enjoyed red cupcakes, but learned the dyes were carcinogenic. Then butter, which no longer became soft on the counter–caused by unusual cow feed, containing chemicals. Certainly the beef he bought was full of antibiotics and chemicals. Salads were contaminated by salmonella. Pesticides! Excessive antibiotics! Chemicals! And…sugar! Even salt!
Arnold tried simplified recipes using only organic ingredients. But organics were expensive and not always available. How could he solve this culinary disaster?
Ending One: Insects. Many ate them, they were full of protein and unsympathetic, with ugly faces. He began a large cockroach farm in his apartment. Within weeks Arnold was chowing down on roasted roach. His friends and relatives reacted poorly to his diet but, to be healthy, he ate bugs. As there were no cookbooks for roaches, Arnold wrote Bugs In Your Bowl. It became a huge best seller and he then could afford organics—but none of them were crunchy.
Ending Two: Angry and frustrated, Arnold formed a political party and spent his savings on pressuring politicians. He wanted laws forcing the agriculture and food industries to eliminate pesticides and chemicals. The push failed. The public wanted their apples perfect, like their TV dinners. Arnold became homeless and lived under a bridge, eating whatever he could find.
Ending Three: Arnold and his partner move to the country and grow and properly cook their own food. Arnold is happy, despite his new hay fever, but after he developed COVID he could taste nothing.