“Come dinnertime, we could always rely on the permanent fixture of two pots, standing at attention, prepared for their marching orders.”
Source: Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories
“. . . Baba filled the void the only way he could think of: a faceoff with the two-burner stove, the two pots, and a heaping bag of sabzi--fresh herbs. The permanent lumps lodged in our throats were temporarily soothed by a steaming pot of khoresh ghormeh sabzi--fresh herb stew. The royalty of all Persian stews.”
Source: Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories
“So we improvised and made do, substituting where possible, always with an eye out for the postman and packages from Iran. Packages bursting with dried herbs and spices, well-traveled scents and secrets from home. Envelopes with a few perfunctory words from family (lest officials be monitoring them) and a photograph or two pulled from all the picture albums that were left behind. Substitutes for all the loved ones that were left behind.”
Source: Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories
“In terms of diet, humans have paid a high price for the pleasure of enjoying a yearly harvest feast.”
Source: The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease
“The food never tastes so good as when everybody at the table worked on it and everybody knows what went into it.
(Interview in Lucky Peach 6)”
“I want to lose weight by eating nothing but moon pies, which have significantly less gravity than earthier foods such as fruits and vegetables.”
Source: There are Two Typos of People in This World: Those Who Can Edit and Those Who Can't
“There will be no purple-haired feminists during the coming food famine. Soon, all women will find cattle ranchers to be the world's sexiest men.”
Source: I design saxophone music in blocks, like Stonehenge
“I avoided his stare, turning for the kitchen. 'You must be hungry, I'll heat something up.'
Rhys straightened. 'You'd- make me food?'
'Heat,' I said. 'I can't cook.'
It didn't seem to make a difference. But whatever it was, the act of offering him food... I dumped some cold soup into a pan and lit the burner. 'I don't know the rules,' I said, my back to him. 'So you need to explain them to me.'
He lingered in the centre of the cabin, watching my every move. He said hoarsely. 'It's an... important moment when a female offers her mate food. It goes back to whatever beasts we were a long, long time ago. But it still matters. The first time matters. Some mated pairs will make an occasion of it- throwing a party just so the female can formally offer her mate food... That's usually done amongst the wealthy. But it means that the female... accepts the bond.'
I stared into the soup. 'Tell me the story- tell me everything.'
He understood my offer: tell me while I cooked, and I'd decide at the end whether or not to offer him that food.”
Source: A Court of Mist and Fury
“This cook shows that liberation must give dreams earthly form. Her food demonstrates that the purpose of political struggle is to make life materially vibrant and gorgeous for each person.”
Source: Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen
“What I want for the people I cook for is for them to enjoy their own perversions at the table, to feel free to exhibit a lack of constraint.”
Source: Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen