There were once three friends named Allie, Cali, and Sally. They had been living in different states since they graduated college, and now they were on
vacation together in a rental house in the Colorado mountains. One day, these friends decided to have a meal together.
Allie had a new recipe she was dying to try out, so she said, “Don’t worry, guys; I can stay home and cook today. You two can go shopping and enjoy your
day together; I will have dinner ready when you come back!”
Cali and Sally were grateful for Allie’s gesture of kindness, so they
thanked her and went to the mall for the day.
Allie began to cook a meatloaf, but she realized that she missed her
friends. However, she knew they would be having a great time shopping, so she
buckled down and finished cooking the meal for her friends.
When Cali and Sally returned, Sally said to Ali, “We had a lot of fun and bought a lot of new clothes, but I missed getting to talk and have fun with
you! What have you cooked for us?”
“Oh, I missed you as well, but I think my new meatloaf recipe is a great
one! I’m glad I could cook a meal for us to enjoy together,” Allie said.
Cali and Sally looked at each other. Cali said, “Oh, Allie, I forgot to
tell you that we no longer eat meat! You should still enjoy your meatloaf
though. Sally and I can eat cereal!”
The next day, Cali suggested that her two friends go to see a movie
while she stayed home and cooked. Allie and Sally saw the high school horror
rom-com that was sweeping the nation, and they were excited to tell Cali all
about it while eating the meal she had spent all day cooking for them.
When Cali saw her friends walking through the door she said, “Hey guys!
I had so much fun cooking macaroni and cheese for you today, and I can’t wait
to hear about the high school horror rom-com! I missed you guys while you were
gone!”
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Sally looked a little embarrassed and said, “Oh no, yesterday when I
told you that I don’t eat any animal products, I meant dairy and eggs as well;
I’m a vegan!”
That night, Allie and Cali ate their mac and cheese while Sally had
cereal. The next day was their last day together, and they wanted to
visit an art museum.
Technically, it was Sally’s turn to cook for the three of them for their
last day, but Allie and Cali didn’t really want to leave her alone all day for
their very last day.
“I’ve got an idea!” said Allie. “We can just all three stay home today
and cook together! That way we can be sure it’s something that we all want to
eat, and no one has to spend the day alone.”
Cali looked at her friends and said, “That’s the best idea I’ve ever
heard! Plus I never really understand the art in museums, but I always
understand food!”
On their final day together, Allie, Cali, and Sally made a vegetable
risotto that they all enjoyed. More importantly, they enjoyed their day
together and realized that there was strength in unity.
Author's note: I really liked reading The Three Friends: the Monkey, the Dog, and the Carabao, a story from the Philippines. I wanted to keep some of the main aspects, like having three friends cooking for each other. In the original story, there is a monster-like creature, the Buñgisñgis, that tries to steal the food of a monkey, a dog, and a carabao, and the three friends try to outsmart him so they can keep their food. A carabao is a type of water buffalo that is the national animal of Philippines. In this story, each animal stays home in turn to cook, and eventually the Buñgisñgis steals all of their food. Finally, when it is the monkey's turn to cook, he traps the Buñgisñgis. Unfortunately, the dog and carabao are foolish and set the Buñgisñgis free and he attacks them. Eventually, the monkey is able to kill the Buñgisñgis with the help of a boa-constrictor.
I thought that it would be fun to add the twist of having vegetarians and vegans into the story because that perfectly fits my two best friends! One of the messages from the original story is that there is strength in unity, so I wanted to maintain that message. I think it’s really important for friends to spend time together, and cooking is always more fun with more people in the kitchen! When friends no longer live in the same place, some details about their everyday life, like eating habits, can fall through the cracks. That’s why I think it’s important to find strength in unity when you can be with your friends.
Bibliography: The Three Friends: the Monkey, the Dog, and the Carabao from Filipino Popular Tales from Dean Fansler's monumental Filipino Popular Tales, published in 1921.
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Hey Alex,
ReplyDeleteMan, now I want some risotto! haha.
I like that you kept the "unity" theme in your story, and I appreciate all the information from the author's note. But now I'm curious about the monster in the other story, and how they outsmart him!
I like the rhyming names, but I think I would suggest changing them to something less similar, simply because it's such a short story, and we don't really have a lot of time or context to figure out who each character is, and from there, it just got a little confusing. I had to re-read the name in the first paragraph to make sure the girl in the second paragraph wasn't the same one who cooked before. :p
But overall, I thought it was a nice read, and I'm always a fan of the wonderful grammar! haha
I really enjoyed your version of the story. Having the friends be vegetarian and vegan was an interesting twist. I like the theme of strength in unity. Just spending time together with friends is always more important when your lives take you on different paths. I liked that you decided to not keep the original ending. That would have been too depressing. I prefer happy endings.
ReplyDeleteMmm, reading your story makes me hungry. I would not have though about making a story all about food and the different things they cook. I Also think it is cute that all of the names you chose for your characters Rhyme.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the girls do learn to enjoy spending their time together, it is a little unfair that Sally never had to cook. She got to go out with her friends twice, and then cook with her friends on the third day. She never had to spend any time alone while her friends went out alone and did stuff without her.
Overall I liked your story. It is short, simple, and it flows well. The girls seem to enjoy their day.
You may want to mention how long the vacation is at the beginning of the story. You saw that it's sally's turn to cook on their final day. If at the beginning of the story you mention the vacation is only three days, then the offer to stay home and cook seems like a much bigger kindness, since they are giving up 1/3 of their vacation time.
I am in agreement with everyone else! Anyone story that contains food and has food as the main ingredient of the story is a hero in my eyes. I love food and talking about food and of course, eating food! The first thing I noticed about your story was the structure. Each time the girls went out and came back the paragraphs were about the same size and it was structured about the same. I liked the way it read which made it easier to continue reading. It flowed nicely and also included a great moral which is easily my favorite part of reading everyone's stories. I liked that it was a modern story as well. You thought outside the box and gave your readers something entertaining to read. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI was not familiar with the original story that you retold and so it was really interesting to read at the end the original summary and then see what little changes you made along the way. Like everyone else, I really liked that you kept the main messages and lessons about unity, friendship, sacrifice, and strength in numbers. These things are all really important. This story especially struck a cord with me because I just got back from my spring break trip with two of my high school friends, we all go to different colleges, and I can relate to forgetting what the others like and dislike when you don't see each other as much anymore. Thank you for including all the pictures of the dishes; I was unfamiliar with risotto and now I feel like I need to try it out!
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I love the bright light blue color of your blog and the little drawings behind make everything really stand out!
I loved this story Alex! I am a huge cooker myself so this story was right up my alley. I also really like the theme of friendship in your story, I hope that I can have a trip like this one day with all my friends. I loved the pictures you added of all the foods, it went perfect with your story and I always love pictures. This sounds like such a typical vacation with a few of your close friends. People can relate to your story which is really awesome and this also makes it an enjoyable read. I am not familiar with the original story, but it sounds like you took some cool aspects of it and turned it into a real life version. My good friends from high school go to colleges all over the country so I can relate with this story by getting able to meet up with everyone and learning little things about each other along the way. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteFirst, I loved how you made all of your characters name rhyme! What a fun little detail to add to your story. I loved how your characters were all best friends and loved each other’s company. This story reminded me a lot of the friends I have made in college and how much I will miss them after I graduate in May. I also really enjoyed how you put pictures throughout your story (although it made me a little hungry). I have never read this original story before, but it sounds so interesting. I also loved the theme “strength in unity.” What if you added some sort of plot twist at the end? What if the friends were really playing a joke on each other? These are just some funny ideas I thought of while I was reading your story. Overall, great job! Keep up the great work for the rest of this semester!
ReplyDeleteGreat Story! I love how it was a happy story and they were all great friends with rhyming names! They really cared for each other and didn't get made when the meal wasn't okay with their diet. Its also cool that your best friends are vegan and vegetarian so you could apply your life to this story! All of those images you picked looked so appetizing! Great job!
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