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Iron Chef
By Sharon Thariss The best part of summer break as a kid was going to sleepaway camp. For two weeks in July, I would be on an island with no grown ups. I’d stay in a little cabin with seven other kids and just two counsellors (basically kids themselves). The days were split up so that in the mornings all the kids from different cabins would be mixed up into different activities–I did mostly sailing and canoeing–and in the afternoon our counsellors would be in charge of picking the activities our cabin did together. There was one activity that very few cabins got to do because there are very few counselors willing to brave it: Iron Chef. Now, Iron Chef wasn’t a particularly dangerous or messy activity, like Mission Impossible or Paint Twister, but it definitely had the ability to send a counsellor to the doctor’s cabin for a few days. It started out as a fun and simple activity: two teams would compete to see who could make the best meal out of the ingredients they were given. It quickly took a dark turn. The issue with giving eight kids the opportunity to create whatever they want and promising to eat it is that those kids will try to put together the most revolting pile of inedible waste, just to watch you suffer. Ingredients:
Leftover pasta (preferably penne) Leftover rice Bread Pepperoni Canned green beans Ketchup Relish Hot sauce Your choice of jam Salt Pepper Chili powder Cinnamon Red pepper flakes Note: The amounts will vary every time, measure with your heart. Instructions:
Note: It is good to have the trash can nearby for the first bite if you have a weak stomach (and even if you don’t.) |
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So one day after lunch we put on our aprons and grabbed our spoons because we are going to be doing Iron Chef. The pure joy of watching our counselors slowly pull the trash can closer and closer as they watch us mix jam, rice, ketchup, pasta, hot sauce, and green beans still brings a smile to my face. Then when we had done all we could to make it so incredibly horrible that even a picture of it would make you want to throw up, we turned to our counselors. With big bright smiles on our faces we handed them a spoon and watched as they reached with shaking hands, for our masterpieces. We never saw those counselors again. Just kidding, but very few managed to swallow an entire bite and even fewer managed to keep it down. Even so, some counselors will attempt this daring feat because they know that it is one of the activities that brings the brightest memories. 
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