Brad led Dave into the restaurant. From it’s name, The Cuckoo, Dave wasn’t sure what kind of restaurant it might be. Inside, it was a sophisticated white and dark wood motif with a dramatic cuckoo clock in the reception area. Brad marched on accompanied by the hostess and soon they were seated in a corner booth surveying the menu. It seemed The Cuckoo was a German restaurant with all the traditional dishes and Brad after some consulting with the hostess ordered for them both. Soon they were drinking German beer and catching up on the years since they had last been together.
By the time the food arrived, they were well into their second pitcher of beer. Dave was amazed to see a family sized platter of savory sauerbraten accompanied by bowls of red cabbage and spaetzle. Brad immediately dug in, savoring the succulent meat and side dishes and was quickly demolished his first heaping plate and reloaded. Dave was still working on his first plate when Brad wiped the last of the sauce from the serving plate and paused.
“You probably remember that I wasn’t much of an eater in high school.” Brad commented. “My mother was a lousy cook. Everything was tasteless and overcooked and so I never realized that food was supposed to taste good. That’s why I was so scrawny. I never thought anything about it and I was never such a scarecrow that I couldn’t get a date so I was fine until I got to college and started loosing my hair. That got me scared.”
Just then Brad stopped. His eyes focused across the room where a server was approaching with more food. Brad immediately focused on the platter of potato pancakes accompanied with sour cream and applesauce and dug in when the plate was set before him. Dave had a plate as well although he was full from his share of the sauerbraten and he picked while Brad wolfed down his and then smiled as he saw the server approaching with two more plates.
“They need to be hot off the griddle to be at their best,” he explained to Dave. “So I asked them to bring them in batches.”
Dave watched in wonderment as his old friend finished his second plate, then Dave’s second plate and finally the rest of Dave’s first plate. Then with a contented expression on his face, he pushed the plates away, belched quietly and continued.
“ Anyway, I decided that a wimpy guy with a comb over was not going to be any girls idea of a hot date.
I put myself on a serious weight training program, forced myself to eat lots of healthy, tasteless food and shaved my head. It took two years to add 25 pounds of muscle to my boney frame but by my junior year I felt pretty good. At 195 pounds and 10 percent body fat, I wasn’t a 10 but I did alright with the ladies.
I still had to force myself to eat to maintain that weight but once I bulked up it wasn’t nearly so hard to maintain. After college my first job was pretty pedestrian. Just deskwork.”
Brad’s attention was again diverted when another server approached with more food. This time is was a savory platter of sauerkraut with pork chops, apples and sausages. Dave couldn’t see how anyone could eat any more food but Brad plowed right in. He slowed a bit with the last of the sausages but the heaping platter was reduced to pork chop bones in short order.
Breathing a little heavy, Brad sighed, let his belt out and continued.
“But than last year I got a new assignment that meant traveling to work with our clients in designing and managing restaurants. They wanted me to understand and appreciate the food they were serving in order to do the best marketing and packaging of their restaurants. I told them they were wasting their time because I just didn’t appreciate food. They insisted so I began to sample the food my clients were serving. I had never tasted anything so good in my life and before long I was hooked on good food.”
“Hooked,” Dave was thinking. He had never seen such a display of unabashed gluttony in his life. Where did Brad put all that food.
“So you’ve go the perfect job?” Dave commented, observing that there was now a definite ledge of bulging belly under Brad’s muscular chest which he hadn’t noticed before.
“Life is good.” Brad responded. “I don’t have any trouble keeping my weight up anymore. In fact, I have gained 20 pounds over the last year.”
He patted his now very prominent belly with evident pride.
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