Thanks to everyone who took some time to participate in cracking my first code puzzle! I think it was quite difficult and I was beginning to lose hope that someone will solve it, until @jenkinrocket posted their first reply with half of the words decrypted. 😅

Crack the Code is my second contest series on Steemit and I hope that this post will help you get the idea, what the difference between the codes and my rebus puzzles is. But before giving you the solution, let me entertain you a little. 😉

Congratulations go to @jenkinrocket, who eventually cracked the whole code!

The code was a message hidden behind the instructions and hints on the picture.

@jenkinrocket explained the solution in another reply:

The first clue is the flag, which represents USA. The two question marks mean you change one of the letters in 'USA', namely the 'A' to an 'E'.
The second clue turns out to be KN 'if' E, which is a logic statement (only got this because of a discrete mathematics course I took). KNifE, in other words, or KNIFE.
The '& is free, of course.
The last word is 4 K's, or Four K, minus the U as shown under. That means For K, or FORK.

This is an excellent explanation and there is only one more thing to add - something about the second word of the message:
_ _ GH _ _ T (with G, H and T removed)
Both words - before and after removing the letters - should make sense, and the four-letter version should fit the rest of the message. That's how we get YOUR (from YOGHURT).

The answer is: "use your knife and fork".

Let me know if you liked this puzzle! Do you want to participate in Crack the Code contests in the future? Do you want the next puzzle to be easier or harder than this one?