Thursday, January 30, 2014

Quotes about Food


Quotes about Food

My two all-time favorite quotation books are Carolyn Warner’s The Words of Extraordinary Women, & Rosalie Maggio’s The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women. It fascinates & saddens me that the brilliant bits between these covers seldom appear in most books of quotations, or internet quotation sites. Here are some food-related quotes from these two fine resources:

Patricia Hampl – When we eat / we are like / everyone else

Ayn Rand – Ah, there’s nothing like tea in the afternoon. When the British Empire collapses, historians will find that it had made but two invaluable contributions to civilization—this tea ritual and the detective novel.

Erica Jong – Eating is never so simple as hunger.

Fran Lebowitz – Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

Fran Lebowitz – Cheese that is required by law to append the word food to its title does not go well with red wine or fruit.

Julia Child – Noodles are not only amusing but delicious.

Sarah J. Hale – There is small danger of being starved in our land of plenty; but the danger of being stuffed is imminent.

Sara Peretsky – All food starting with a p is comfort food . . . pasta, potato chips, pretzels, peanut butter, pastrami, pizza, pastry.

Peg Bracken – Molded salads are best served in situations where they have little or no competition.

Joan Gussow – As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists.

Isak Dinesen – Coffee, according to the women of Denmark, is to the body what the word of the Lord is to the soul.

Which quote hits closest to home? Which one coaxes a smile out of you? Please leave a comment.



7 comments:

  1. What great quotes. I never thought I'd agree with Ayn Rand on anything, but I do agree about the detective novel. I had a friend who had a lot of anxiety when her Old New England family met her husband's immigrant Japanese family. But later she realized she had nothing to worry about. "Both cultures have elaborate tea ceremonies," she said. "They got along famously."

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  2. Hi Anne - thanks for coming by. Tea ceremonies can be uniting, can't they? I, too, was astounded to find that quote attributed to Ayn Rand. Life offers its little surprises.

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  3. "Noodles are not only amusing, but delicious." Oh my. Now I have this vivid memory of my cousins and siblings around the dinner table eating spaghetti. We were all between 8 and 14, and we'd just discovered "The Lion King." So all the littlest kids took turns holding up noodles, quoting, "Oh well, hakuna matata!" and slurping it down with as much pretended disgust as we could muster.
    Pause.
    Smack lips.
    Slowly smile, ala Simba.
    "Slimy...yet satisfying!"
    And then we'd peal with laughter and run through the lines again, with more noodles.
    Probably not what Mrs. Child was thinking, but hey :)

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  4. Joan Gussow's quote clearly settles the margarine vs. butter controversy! When I was 8, butter was under a firestorm of attacks - "toss your butter dishes for margarine is king!" When I was 10, margarine because the enemy, butter was safe again, and they moved on to hating eggs. I can't keep up! Great quotes!

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  5. I like the molded salad quote. It reminded me of the time I was visiting my aunts in Oklahoma. Aunt Helen asked me to pass the salad. I looked and looked and finally nudged my mom. "Where's the salad?" I asked. She pointed to the mold of green jello with carrot shavings and raisins floating in it. Yum. Salad. Thanks for the fun quotes!

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  6. Ahoy Heather, Rachel6 & Christine,
    Christine, I'm with you on the molded salads. When Ellen & I got married, one of our gifts included a recipe box which included a recipe for a molded lime Jello salad with apples & salmon. Whoa. Heather, I grew up with margarine (or "oleo" as many called it), thinking butter was for the rich people across the tracks, but soon after I was the one deciding what to buy I just couldn't make myself buy margarine. Rachel6 -- love that memory!

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  7. I like Gussow's. I remember the push for oleo in the 50s and grew up on it. Yuk! Child's brought a smile to my face and Peretsky's had me thinking of other comfort foods starting with p: pie, peaches, and potatoes immediately came to mind. Now I'm craving peach pie! One made using BUTTER.

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