Mystery Meal is the second episode of Ramona.
Synopsis[]
One evening, Mrs. Quimby is cooking, Mr. Quimby and Ramona are having a silly conversation about what Mr. Quimby's life would be like if he were a chicken, and Beezus is sulky due to having had a late night the previous night at a sleepover (but lies to Mrs. Quimby that she didn't stay up late). Ramona wants to see what Mrs. Quimby is making, but Mr. Quimby has her guess instead.
Then, Mrs. Quimby has Mr. Quimby and Ramona set the table, and then dinner begins. They're having meat, but when Ramona asks if it's pot roast, Mrs. Quimby evasively replies, "It's... related to pot roast". She then berates her for not using her fork "properly". Ramona notices her meat has "bumps" on it and therefore isn't pot roast, so she demands to know what it really is and (due to an earlier conversation on Mata Hari) imagines herself and her family in a spy movie. Her parents explain that the meat is tongue, but at first the girls don't think this is literal, being disgusted when they find out it is. They refuse to eat their tongue and Ramona says she wants to cook herself, so Mr. Quimby tells the girls to cook dinner the next night.
The girls then have a conversation about the situation, with Beezus not wanting to cook, but Ramona insisting it will be fun. She then adds that Mr. Quimby may have forgotten the next day anyway. Then, she decides that she and Beezus will be extra well-behaved the next day so he'll feel he won't have to make them cook.
The next day, the girls do various things in an attempt to be good, such as telling their father good morning, fetching the newspaper, and eating the sandwiches (which are made of the leftover tongue ground up) and pretending to enjoy them. However, that evening, their plan doesn't work and Mr. Quimby has them cook dinner anyway.
The girls enter the kitchen and look through the ingredients, while the parents talk about the situation with their daughters, with Mrs. Quimby expressing her doubts. The girls get a chicken and skin it, to Beezus's annoyance and disgust, and then they continue to cook, until they manage to cook dinner (though they leave a mess in the process).
The family eats the dinner, and the parents claim to like it, with Mr. Quimby even suggesting the girls cook dinner every night. The girls beg him not to make them do that, and he agrees not to. However, the parents are shocked that the kitchen is still a mess.
Trivia[]
- Ramona mentions Mata Hari.
- In Ramona's imagination, Mr. Quimby introduces himself as James Bond.
Differences from Book[]
- In the show, Mrs. Quimby says, "Use your fork properly! It's not a dagger!". In the book, she actually explains how to use it properly, concluding with "A fork is not a dagger".
- In the book, Ramona says, "Mother, this meat has a rough surface!". In the TV show, she says, "Mom, this meat has bumps on it!". In the book, she also realised it was tongue right away and knew what tongue was, whereas in the show, she did not.