The Death of Dreams (Frankiana)

Chapter 25

Diana's POV

[ One tends to eat unhealthy when feeling low.Emotional eating is when we eat because of our mood, not hunger. Our negative emotions make us reach for high-fat and sugary foods and we tend to replace proper meals with snacks.]

[ Fancy food is always good.Some food names and labels sound so novel and exquisite that we tend to assign high expectations to them in terms of taste. This affects how we find their taste in reality accroding to psychology.]

[ Eating healthy simply means that You are giving your body all the required nutrients on a day to day basis.In theory, it should not matter if you are in caloric deficit or surplus as long as the either state does not occur in a chronic time period, then you start jeopradising your health.]

The judges are homeless people. Nasanay sila na kumakain ng mga hindi masyadong pansosyal, so their tastebuds could be more accepting in familiar flavors. The mindset is like this: when something tastes really good pakiramdam mo bitin, but when something tastes common and heavy, you'd feel like you're full already. When you're homeless,you wouldn't actually care if the food you eat tastes good or not, what matters to you is that you won't feel hungry for the rest of the day.

And times up!

Pangatlo sa tinawag para i-explain ang niluto namin for the judges. At ayon sa nakikita ko sa mga kalaban, puro sosyal at komplikado ng mga niluto nila.

"So, what do we have here?." Tanong host.

"I call it The Street Breakfast."

"That's interesting. What is it?."

"I used simple ingredients like peanuts, oats and yogurt for the full package meal then avocado leaves for tea."

"Why do you think homeless people would want this?."

"Well, I don't actually think more about the idea whether they'd want this or not. Because that's the point, you don't give vulnerable people what they want. You offer them what they need."

"Why did you choose these ingredients?."

"Because they're simple, cheap and more accessible. Practically, when you live on the streets you won't think of getting tasty food but what could fill up your stomach. Peanuts, oats and yogurt are all nutritious and all also considered as superfoods. The reason why I called this meal The Street Breakfast is because first, it's easy to get and second, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And it's amazing to get all you need in just one meal or two."

"How about the tea made out of avocado leaves?."

"People don't use this part in a daily basis, so instead of letting the leaves dry, I decided to use its good components for homeless people's protection. Benefits like Cancer Prevention, Skin and Hair Health, Treating Diabetes, Cholesterol Reduction, Curing Asthma, Ulcers, Kidney Stone etc. It is also a good source of calcium, iron, zinc, protein and  many other important nutrients that  we need for survival. So yeah. There's more about it that you can get than how it tastes for the sake of a beautiful temporary experience."

"Very well said, so let me call our four judges to take your precious offer."

Nang kainin nila, I'm happy to see that they loved it. Another thing is that one of them even complimented me for my explanation and for being really thoughtful. And I think, it's the best feeling ever. Seeing their wonderful smiles.

I didn't add sugar so the flavors must be a contrast of each other. The peanuts are expectedly a bit salty, oats tastes neutral while the yogurt is not so sweet. Just right. Fun fact, yogurt is a fermented slightly acid often flavored semisolid food made of milk and milk solids to which cultures of two bacteria (Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus) 
have been added.

Another thing feel grateful about is I'm one the ten qualifiers for the next round.

I saw Franki from the audience seat, with her beautiful smile mouthing, "Go Diana, you can do that."

By that, I got a bit happier and optimistic about this crazy mindbreaking competition.

FLASHBACK

Habang naghuhugas kami ng pinggan after dinner sa bahay nila,

"Know your customers. And learn how to always make them feel that they're right." Sabi ni Franki.

"Hindi kaya yun yung ibig sabihin ni Daddy about lying as the secret ingredient?."

"It can be. You'd figure that out soon Diana, I know you will. The right one will come in the right time. And the right time will bring you what you've been missing. Then you'd find yourself complete in the long run, realizing it's been there since the beginning. You're just not paying attention to it because sometimes, beautiful things aren't obvious Diana."

EOFB

Sometimes, beautiful things aren't obvious.

What does she mean by that? Ang dami ko nang iniisip, dumagdag pa yun. Hirap na hirap nako.

"So, let's proceed to the second round. In this round, your challenge is taking risks. Which means you have to reveal your restaurant's most valuable secret. The secret ingredient. You are allowed to cook anything in 30 minutes inside a booth so no one would know what you used. The judges are top 3 master tasters in the world, and they would try to guess what the secret ingredient is. But before that, we would give you a one minute countdown to think and then another minute to get any ingredient that you need in your other set of chests that's inside your booth. And timer starts now--"

Oh fudge! Bigla akong nablangko and time is running out.

Ano ba kasing ibig sabihin ng: The Secret ingredient is lying?

Pinagtitripan lang ba nila ako? Think Diana, think. So far, I've learned several things about cooking and manipulating people.

Things like:

Gosh, wala talaga akong maisip. Ano ba tong nangyayari sakin? Ngayon pa na kailangan ko na talaga ng solusyon at sagot sa lahat ng mga katanungang dapat nang matuldukan. Calm down Diana.

Nagpapanic na ako nang nagtagpo ang mga tingin namin ni Franki. "Breathe Diana." She gestured out.

Then all of a sudden, I found myself calming down. At tanging si Franki nalang ang nakikita ko at ang oras na para bagang bumabagal ang takbo.

Lie Diana, lie.

That's it! I'm just gonna lie, pero what type of lying am I gonna do?.