"I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants."
A. Whitney Brown
"If you don't love life you can't enjoy an oyster; there is a shock of freshness to it and intimations of the ages of man, some piercing intuition of the sea and all its weeds and breezes. [They] shiver you for a split second."
Eleanor Clark
"In America, even your menus have the gift of language. . . . 'The Chef's own Vienna Roast. A hearty, rich meat loaf, gently seasoned to perfection and served in a creamy nest of mashed farm potatoes and strictly fresh garden vegetables.' Of course, what you get is cole slaw and a slab of meat, but that doesn't matter because the menu has already started your juices going. Oh, those menus. In America, they are poetry."
Laurie Lee
"Manhattan is a narrow island off the coast of New Jersey devoted to the pursuit of lunch."
"Marmalade in the morning has the same effect on taste buds that a cold shower has on the body."
Jeanine Larmoth
"More than any other in Western Europe, Britain remains a country where a traveler . . . has to think twice before indulging in the ordinary food of ordinary people."
Joseph Lelyveld
"Reservations and cloth napkins are really minor pinnacles in the high sierra of the New York lunch. The zenith, the Mount Whitney of lunches, the noon meal at which all local lines of force converge [is] the Bar Room of the Four Seasons. The Bar Room has a corner table placed strategically at a point diagonally across from the entrance. . . . the table of tables in the setting of settings in the building of buildings. In the religion of lunch, this is the holy of holies."
"Russians will consume marinated mushrooms and vodka, salted herring and vodka, smoked salmon and vodka, salami and vodka, caviar on brown bread and vodka, pickled cucumbers and vodka, cold tongue and vodka, red beet salad and vodka, scallions and vodka—anything and everything and vodka."
Hedrick Smith
"The secret to a long life is to stay busy, get plenty of exercise and don't drink too much. Then again, don't drink too little."
Hermann Smith-Johannson, 103-year-old cross-country skier
"Whenever someone asks me if I want water with my Scotch, I say I'm thirsty, not dirty."
Quotations