Goku in the kitchen
Dragonball Z
Written January 2011
Goku awoke one morning wanting to do something nice for Chi Chi. Last night she yelled at him for not doing anything nice for her and for being away for long periods of time. "GOKU!" She yelled. "Why is it so important that you train all the time? Don't you ever want to spend time with your wife? What have I done to make you want to leave so often?" She said practically screaming at him. Chi Chi was so good at what she did, she knew if she started crying, she could get Goku to confess. He often did. "I'm sorry Chi Chi. I've been training a lot. I promise to do something nice for you soon." This time Goku felt bad for leaving and that night he decided he would wake up early to make her breakfast. He didn't know how to cook but that wasn't going to stop him from trying.
The next morning Goku awoke before dawn and looked over at Chi Chi who was still sound asleep. Slowly getting out of bed and got dressed as quickly and quietly as he could. When he was dressed he left the room and closed the door quietly. With his plan in motion he smiled to himself as he walked down the hallway towards the kitchen. In the kitchen he looked for one of Chi Chi's recipe books. Looking through it, Goku finally found a breakfast cookbook. Setting it on the counter and began looking through the pages for anything he thought would be easy enough for him to make. A few pages in and he found a recipe to make buttermilk pancakes and hash browns. The recipe didn't ask for much so he thought this one could be it. "Hmm I'm not too sure what buttermilk is but I am sure she will like it. Let's see what do I need?" Since he never went to school, he knew he couldn't read very well but he tried his best to make the words out. He used his index finger to scan the ingredients as he read down the page.
"So I need 1 cup of all purpose flour." Goku looked around. "One cup; that sure is a lot of flour but the recipe calls for it so I guess its right." Goku got a big mixing bowl from the cupboard and a giant spoon from the drawer. "So I need a cup? I wonder how big the cup needs to be." He went to the next cupboard where the cups were stored and picked the closest to him. Walking over to the counter where the flour was, he opened the lid and looked inside. "This stuff looks like it's going to be messy. This will be fun." Ignoring the scoop in the flour, he filled the cup to the top and poured the flour into the large bowl. "There we go, and what do I need next?" He looked back down at the book and read the next line. "1 teaspoon (tsp) of baking soda, now what in the world is baking soda, and what is a teaspoon? This is harder than I thought Also what is a tsp?" He said scratching the back of his head and looked around for what would be baking soda. He looked in almost every drawer making a mess as he pulled out spoons and other kitchen utensils. Finally he found a small spoon that had big letters labeled 1 tsp. "This must be the tsp. Alright then, now I need to find the baking soda." To his dismay none of the powders were labeled as "baking soda". So he went back to the book and read it again. He read carefully so that he would understand it and just in case he missed anything important. When reading, the book instructed to use 1 teaspoon baking soda. "That must be some type of soda." He said looking in the fridge. "Why doesn't Chi Chi ever buy soda? How does she bake cakes and food without soda?" He asked himself as he continued to look in the fridge. After a few more seconds of looking around the fridge Goku spotted a small orange box labeled 'baking soda.' "Oh this must be it. It sure doesn't look like soda. Oh well, it's whatever the recipe calls for I guess." Walking back over to the bowl and stuck the teaspoon inside and dumped what was needed into the bowl. "That's it? That sure doesn't look like much." Shrugging the thought off, he went back to the book.
Back to the book, Goku read the next line. ¼ teaspoon of salt, the book instructed. Goku looked at the teaspoon he used before. "Well I guess I don't fill it all the way then." When he finally found the salt, he stuck the teaspoon in and filled it the best he could. He had to empty the spoon a few times so that it looked like a ¼ of a teaspoon. When he was satisfied he dumped the salt into the bowl. He could barely see it since both the flour and salt were the same color. He shrugged and went back to the book. "2 tablespoons of sugar," He said to himself and looked around. "A tablespoon must be the biggest of all the baking spoons. I wonder where she puts them." He wondered out loud to himself. "Or perhaps it's just a regular spoon we eat with because that goes on the table. Yeah that's it, I get it now." He smiled to himself and got a spoon. He dunked the spoon into the sugar bowl that was next to the flour. He did have to taste and make sure it was sugar before he used it. He put the 2 "tablespoons" of sugar into the bowl and looked at the book again to see what was next. "Ok I need a large egg and it needs to be lightly beaten. Wait, I beat the egg? Well that's strange. I never see Chi Chi beat any eggs. Unless the means cracking the shell." Goku walked to the fridge and got the biggest egg there was. Even though every egg looked exactly the same to him, he ended up picking one that he felt was best suited for the recipe. Back at the bowl he hit the egg on the edge of the bowl, but he hit the egg to hard and it cracked so that the shell and yolk went into the bowl. Goku thought it was perfect and moved on. "Now I need 1 cup of buttermilk. So then I guess that means I need that cup I used for the flour. I wonder if Chi Chi has buttermilk." He went to the fridge but only found regular milk. "This will just have to do." He said as he poured it into his cup and then poured from the cup into the bowl. Next he needed 3 tablespoons of butter. He smiled and went back the fridge and pulled out a stick of butter. Now he was a bit confused. How was he going to measure the butter with a spoon? After a few moments he got two more spoons and measured the butter with that. Whatever space of butter that was not on the spoon he cut it off and put the stick of putter that was 3 teaspoons into the bowl. He then needed that extra butter to lightly grease the pan. "How does butter grease a pan?" Goku shrugged after a moment of thinking and stuck the butter in the pan he got from the cabinet. "I guess the stove needs to be on." He said to himself. He played with the switches on the stove till he found the one that lit under the pan. Soon the butter began to melt.
When the butter melted Goku poured his pancake batter into the pan. It quickly started to cook. He didn't know how to make the batter into many different pancakes so he figured one giant pancake would do. "If she doesn't eat it all, that means I can have the rest." He said as he stood and watched as the pan sizzled. After a while he decided the down side was done and he did his best to flip it over but some batter got onto the counter. It didn't help that he had a much larger mess in the kitchen anyway. When the pancake was flipped over, he stood by and watched it cook. He then decided that perhaps he should make something else as well, but what to make? He forgot about the hash browns since the pancake took a while to make.
Finally Goku decided he would make some bacon. He looked in the fridge and found some. Goku took some out and put the bacon in another skillet that he found. Finally turning the burner on under that skillet, the bacon started to make "sizzle" noises and soon after he could smell how good bacon cooked. He secretly hoped Chi Chi wouldn't eat it all so he could have some for himself. Goku did not know how long the bacon was supposed to cook for so he stayed close by in the kitchen, just in case.
Looking out the window the sun was almost in view. He had to be quick about the cooking. Chi Chi could wake up any moment now. She always woke up early so she could make breakfast, as she always did.
It was a shame; Goku didn't know bacon cooked fast. It wasn't long before it began to burn. Too bad he wasn't paying any attention. He was still looking out the window. A few minutes later he began to smell the burnt bacon as well as burnt giant pancake. He looked over and his eyes grew wide. Black smoke was coming from the pancake and the bacon. Starting to panic he quickly ran to turn off the knobs on the stove but that didn't stop the smoke. He wasn't sure what to do so he got the nearest towel and started swatting at the smoke. Not thinking to open the window he just sent the smoke all over. A few moments of swatting and the smoke detector in the kitchen started to beep. Then the rest of the smoke detectors followed. "Great how do I turn these things off? Chi Chi is going to kill me when she wakes up."
In the bedroom Chi Chi awoke to the sounds of loud beeping. Sitting up straight she looked up to see the smoke detector beeping. She looked over and noticed Goku was gone. Many thoughts went through her mind. "What is that smell…..? Oh no the kitchen. Jumping out of bed like a ninja she ran for the kitchen.
Smelling the air she didn't smell any fire but it mostly smelled like burnt bacon. She was now a bit confused as she arrived in the kitchen. Seeing Goku swatting the smoke she ran towards the nearest window and opened it. She opened a few more and soon after the smoke began to clear. "Goku, what in the world are you doing?" She demanded. The smoke detectors were still beeping so she had to yell a bit more. "I'm sorry Chi Chi." He said as he continued to swat the smoke. Chi Chi quickly walked over and turned the fan on that was on the microwave then took a chair to every room and turned off the smoke detectors. When done she went back to the kitchen and found it a mess, with flour all over, pots and pans everywhere and kitchen utensils scattered throughout the kitchen on the floor. She looked at her husband who was next to the stove with a small embarrassed smile. "Goku what were you thinking? You could have burned down the house." She said as she looked into the skillets and was unable to make out what was in it. "I'm sorry Chi Chi, I wanted to do something nice for you and well breakfast in bed seemed like a good idea." Chi Chi blushed and was touched by Goku wanting to do something nice for her. "Ah Goku I'm so happy you tried." She said and hugged and kissed her husband. "I have a better idea. How about we clean this place up and when were finished we can make something together. That's what would make me happy and it will give us some quality time together." Goku smiled at her. "Alright Chi Chi let's do it." He said.
Goku showed Chi Chi the book he used and together they made the buttermilk pancakes and hash browns. Goku wasn't allowed to do much but Chi Chi did allow him to get the utensils she needed.