This is the story of a young lady named Ada who loved buying food from restaurants instead of cooking at home. She trusted every place that looked clean and classy—until one day, something terrible happened. What she saw in a restaurant kitchen shocked her to the bone and nearly cost her life. From sickness to heartbreak and finally a new beginning, this story will teach you about the hidden dangers why you must never eat in anyhow restaurant.
Chapter One
Ada was very pressed after she finished eating her food and urgently needed to ease herself. So she asked the waitress where the restroom was located and she was directed to the restroom. However, when she got there, it was already occupied by another customer and Ada couldn’t hold it any longer.
She saw a swinging door which led to the kitchen. When she peeped through the swinging door, she couldn’t make much sense of what she saw. So she went through the door into the kitchen and what she saw shocked her to the bones. It made her want to vomit. Everything was very dirty and irritating. There were a lot of dirty dishes piled up beside the cooking area. Raw meat was left out in the open with a dozen of flies perching on it. The women who were cooking the food had dirty hair and their white aprons were stained with all sorts of things. It looked as if it hadn’t been washed for a long time. The whole floor was dirty and filthy and there were rats roaming freely all around.
Then Ada saw the chief cook, a very fat dark woman wearing a sleeveless gown. Her teeth were very brown and the hair on her armpits were bushy and disgusting. Ada watched as the fat woman scratched her dirty armpit with the spoon she was using to cook and still used the same spoon to stir the soup without washing it. Ada felt very disgusted and she almost wanted to throw up. She held her stomach with one hand and used the other hand to cover her nose and mouth because the smell and odour in the kitchen was very bad. She went back inside the restaurant feeling disappointed and irritated at the same time. When she left the restaurant, she rushed outside to vomit all that she had eaten. She couldn’t believe what she just witnessed.
Chapter Two
Ada grew up getting used to buying food from different restaurants because she was too lazy to cook at home. She knew all the best and latest restaurants and buka joints in the states and she had eaten in each and every one of them. Every night, she would pick a new restaurant and patronize them. Her friend Chisom would often try to advise her against eating out all the time. Chisom would tell her, “Don’t you know it is cheaper and safer to buy things at the market and cook for yourself? Why do you always prefer to waste money on buying cooked food outside the house?” But Ada refused to listen to Chisom because she didn’t see anything wrong in buying food outside. She was already used to eating out because that was the way she was brought up.
When she was still very little, her parents were always busy with work and business that they didn’t have time for the children or chores at home. Mr. and Mrs. Ezemaka were fortunate to give birth to three children whom they named Ada, Uzoma and Nneka. But as soon as the children started going to school, their parents stopped giving them the needed attention. Whenever they were going to school in the morning, their parents would give them money to buy food at school. And when they returned back at home in the afternoon, they would have to go and buy lunch from a nearby food vendor beside their house. At night, they would have to buy dinner and eat before their mother and father returned from work in the night.
Ada, the eldest daughter, took up the role of a mother in the home. Ada couldn’t cook because her mother didn’t teach her. Their father was a well-known driver who travelled a lot. Most times he would be on the road away from home for two or three months. He wasn’t bothered about home. All he cared about was the financial aspect of the home. Their mother was a full-time business woman whose shop was located at the heart of the market. So she was always busy from dawn to dusk. She leaves the home very early to escape traffic and gets home when the children were already asleep.
Ada grew up learning how to take care of herself and her siblings in the absence of her parents. She got used to the street life and its way of life. The three children grew up to prefer junks and street food over freshly homemade meals. Before Ada graduated from the university, she lost her father in a tragic accident. Her siblings also started following their mother to the market to help her with the sales because the business was booming and she was getting old. So she needed more people to help her at the market. As she was getting old, she needed more people to help her at the market. After Ada graduated from the university, she was posted to a different part of the country to teach at a remote school for one year compulsory service. When she got there, it didn’t take long before she settled down and got used to the new environment.
Chapter Three
It was in this new environment that she met Chisom. Chisom was also a graduate who was posted to teach at the same school like Ada. They became close friends and started living together as sisters. But unlike Ada, Chisom rarely bought food outside the house. She would often go to the market and buy foodstuffs and cook them by herself. But Ada didn’t know how to cook.
As soon as Ada was settled in the new environment, she started exploring the new environment in search of street food vendors and restaurants to know which of them offered the cheapest meal with a good taste. Every single day, she would eat at a different restaurant to test their food.
Chisom observed that Ada didn’t buy any pots or plates for cooking at home and she found it very strange that Ada liked to always eat out and she doesn’t like cooking. So one day, Chisom told Ada, “Don’t you know it is safer and cheaper for you to buy things at the market and cook for yourself? Why do you always prefer to waste your money on buying cooked food from outside?” But Ada got offended and answered her rudely. “Is it your money? Have I ever asked you for money? How is my life choice your business?” Chisom felt she was trespassing. So she apologized to Ada and told her that she was simply trying to look out for her. But no matter what she told Ada, it didn’t change Ada’s habit of buying and eating food outside.
One faithful day, Ada and Chisom were on their way back from work when a very handsome and rich young man approached the both of them. “Hello, good afternoon. My name is Ucheena,” the man said. He asked to see Ada privately and he told her that he liked her. They exchanged numbers and they started talking often over the phone. Emeka was a businessman who had many branches of his company in the country. He would often take Ada out to a fancy expensive restaurant to eat and it didn’t take long before Ada fell in love with Emeka.
However, one faithful day, Emeka decided to visit Ada at home. Ada welcomed him warmly and bought him a soft drink. As they were discussing, Emeka’s stomach started grumbling and he told Ada that he was very hungry and requested that Ada should cook for him because he wanted to taste her food. He offered to take her to the market so they would buy some ingredients and food items to cook with. But to his greatest surprise, Ada told him that it was a waste of time to cook food. Instead, she said, “Why don’t we place a call to one of those fancy restaurants and order a delicious meal instead?” Emeka refused and insisted that he wanted to taste Ada’s cooking.
When Ada realized that Emeka was very serious, she opened up and confessed to him. “I’m sorry, Emeka, but I can’t cook.” Emeka was surprised. Ada was a very beautiful and classy lady, so he found it very strange that Ada couldn’t cook. He became very disappointed and left Ada’s house abruptly.
When Chisom came back home, she met Ada lying on the bed looking very sad. She felt very concerned and asked her what the matter was, but Ada refused to open up to Chisom. Instead, she lied that she lost some money and that was why she was sad. She didn’t want Chisom to mock her because Chisom had been warning her against buying food outside for a very long time.
Chapter Four
One faithful afternoon, Ada was on her way back from work when she noticed a new fancy restaurant on her way back home. It was a new place and she had never eaten there before. She walked past the restaurant and admired how beautiful it was. There were many customers and the exterior design looked luxurious. Whenever she passed by the restaurant, it was always filled with customers and one day she decided to patronize them.
She walked into the restaurant and she loved what she saw. It looked so beautiful and classy, yet their food was quite cheap. This must be the reason why there are always customers in the shop, Ada thought to herself as she went through the menu. As she was going through the menu, one of the waiters approached her and asked her for what she would like to order. She made her order and it was brought to her promptly. The food tasted delicious and ever since that day, Ada became a frequent customer. She made sure to patronize them every day and the waiters already knew Ada’s preference, so they expected her daily. Most times, when the schedule was tight, she would place a call to them to deliver the food to her office.
However, something strange happened in less than a month after Ada started patronizing the new restaurant. She was at work one afternoon and placed an order for food from the restaurant because she was too tired to enter the sun. When they delivered the food, she started eating. But when she was almost done with the food, she saw a dead cockroach inside the food. Ada became very shocked and confused. It would be her first time seeing such. And this was particularly because she was a street girl and fond of eating very fast and also with her hand without observing the contents of the food properly. Ada was unable to finish the food and she had to throw the rest away. But she foolishly didn’t take caution. She felt it must be a mistake.
One week after the incident, Ada fell seriously ill and was admitted to a hospital. She had a runny stomach and serious fever which almost took her life. After the doctor’s diagnosis, he told her that the cause of her illness was a strange bacteria known to breed only in very dirty places. He said to her, “always make sure your kitchen and cooking environment is clean. You are very lucky that you were admitted on time. This ailment is so dangerous it would kill you in days.” Ada thanked the doctor before she was discharged from the hospital and was placed on drugs.
When she got back home, Chisom became her caregiver. Whenever Chisom finished cooking at home, she would ensure she gave Ada some food to eat. But when Ada completely recovered, she didn’t change. She reverted back to her old ways of buying food outside. To make matters even more complicated, she continued patronizing the same restaurant whose food she found the cockroach in. It didn’t take up to three weeks again before she had to visit the hospital the second time.
However, when it happened the third time, Ada decided that she would carry out her own secret investigation to understand why she was always falling sick after eating food from the restaurant. Because the restaurant looked neat and luxurious from the outside and she felt that there was no room for death in the eating area.
Chapter Five
One faithful weekend, Ada went to the restaurant in the afternoon. She ordered her usual food, but this time she didn’t rush the food like she used to. She took her time to observe each portion of rice she scooped to be sure it wasn’t contaminated. When she was done eating, she pretended to be pressed and asked the waiter to point her in the direction of the restroom.
When she got there, the restroom was already occupied, so she decided to use the opportunity and look around the restaurant. As she ventured down the hall, she saw a swinging door which led to the kitchen. As she peeped through the swinging door, she was shocked by what she saw. There were a lot of dirty dishes piled up beside the cooking area. Raw meat was left out in the open with dozens of flies perching on it. The women who were cooking the food had dirty hair and their white aprons were stained with all sorts of things. It looked as if it hadn’t been washed for many months. The whole floor was filthy and dirty and there were rats roaming freely all around.
Then Ada saw the chief cook, a very fat black woman wearing a sleeveless gown. Her teeth were brown and the hair on her armpits were bushy and disgusting. Ada felt like throwing up. She ran back to the restaurant and sat on her chair, pretending like nothing had happened. Her stomach churned as she realized that many other restaurants may be the same way, even the ones she considered very clean and trustworthy. She thought about the different restaurants she had visited and the countless meals she had eaten and wondered if they were all the same.
When Ada got back home, she was very ashamed of herself and wished she had listened to Chisom in the past. That day, she made a decision she would start making her own meals. She cleaned out her own kitchen space and went to the internet to learn how to cook. She went to the market to get some cooking utensils and ingredients.
When Chisom returned that evening, she was shocked to see Ada in the kitchen. She changed into her house clothes and joined Ada in the kitchen. Together, they finished preparing the meal. The food didn’t look as beautiful and fancy as the meals she often bought at the restaurant, but it tasted very delicious and she knew how it was made, with proper hygiene and care.
Ada continued learning how to cook through the internet and from Chisom as well. She stopped eating out and would often carry food to work. She balanced her love for eating out with the comfort of a clean, home-cooked meal. Her colleagues were surprised to see Ada bringing meals to the office and would often join her in eating sometimes.
Emeka eventually returned and he apologized to her for leaving her abruptly after finding out that she couldn’t cook instead of advising and pushing her in the right direction. The both of them settled their disputes and got married some months later.
Moral Lesson’s
The moral lesson of this story reminds us that not everyone or everything is as clean as they appear. Sometimes, make efforts to see where the food you buy is being prepared. No matter how busy you may be, always try to make sure that you have time for your children. When you truly love someone, as you should have their best interest at heart. Don’t walk away simply because of a trait you don’t like. Attempt to see if they are willing to improve or change.
