Food Quote Friday: George Carlin

"Ever wonder about those people who spend $2 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backward."

— George Carlin

More cool, refreshing food quotes can be found within the food quote archive.

Food Quote Friday: Julia Child

"I'm awfully sorry for people who are taken in by all of today's dietary mumbo jumbo. They are not getting any enjoyment out of their food."

— Julia Child, as quoted in Esquire

More sinfully delicious food quotes can be found within the food quote archive

Food Quote Friday: Men at Work

Image by Kham Tran

Buying bread from a man in Brussels,
he was six foot four and full of muscles.
I said, do you speak-a my language?
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich.

— Men at Work from Business As Usual

More salty, yeasty food quotes can be found within the food quote archive

Food Quote Friday: Alice May Brock

"Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good."

— Alice May Brock

More food quotes can be found within the food quote archive

Food Quote Friday: MFK Fisher

"I don't think we eat enough soup here in the States. It can, and often should, be a meal in itself, as an occasional good book devoted to the subject tries to prove. What is better, more resting on a Sunday night than a tureen of steaming, buttery oyster stew, plenty of little round crackers and some cold white wine or lager beer?"

— MFK Fisher

More steaming, buttery food quotes can be found here

Food Quote Friday: Gary Johnson

"How simple life is. We buy a fish. We are fed.
We sit close to each other, we talk and then we go to bed."

— Gary Johnson from You made crusty bread rolls...

More simply delicious food quotes can be found in the archive here.

Food Quote Friday: E B White

"We should all do what in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry."

— E B White from The Letters of E B White

Food Poem Friday: Edward Lear

"They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
And no end of Stilton Cheese
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve."

Taken from The Jumblies by Edward Lear

Going to sea? Take along a few choice food quotes.

Food Quote Friday: Robert Stephens

"Even now, when I do a slide show of the Geek Squad story, the first slide is a photo of ramen noodles. Because for me, ramen noodles are the international symbol for struggle.

All start-ups are like college students. They have nothing. They have hunger, they have desire, they have vision, and they can dedicate themselves to the business because they usually have no families to support. The absence of resources is the key to innovation."

— Geek Squad Founder Robert Stephens in Escape Magazine

Food Quote Friday: Horace

The traditional crêpe complete: cheese, ham and a soft-centered egg. Mmm... So simple. So tasty.

"A hungry stomach seldom scorns plain food."

— Horace

Hungry for more food quotes? Find 'em here.

Food Quote Friday: Charles Reznikoff

"A Mounted Man with an Apple" from the peerless NYPL

"Showing a torn sleeve, with stiff and shaking fingers the old man pulls off a bit of the baked apple, shiny with sugar, eating with reverence food, the great comforter."

— Charles Reznikoff

A deep bowl of food-quote comfort can be found here.

Food Quote Friday: Nigella Lawson

"I think we all live in a world that is so fast-paced, it's threatening and absolutely saturated with change and novelty and insecurity. Therefore, the ritual of cooking and feeding my family and friends, whoever drops in, is what makes me feel that I'm in a universe that is contained."

— Nigella Lawson in escape magazine

Food Quote Friday: Graham Greene

"Tea at college was served on long tables with an urn at the end of each. Long baguettes of bread, three to a table, were set out with meagre portions of butter and jam; the china was coarse to withstand the schoolboy-clutch and the tea strong. At the Hôtel de Paris I was astonished at the fragility of the cups, the silver teapot, the little triangular savoury sandwiches, the éclairs stuffed with cream."

— Graham Greene from The Comedians

Sample more savoury food quotes here.

Food Quote Friday: Madame d'Arestel

" 'Monsieur,' Madame d'Arestel, Superior of the convent of the Visitation at Belley, once said to me more than fifty years ago, "whenever you want to have a really good cup of chocolate, make it the day before, in a porcelain coffeepot, and let it set. The night's rest will concentrate it and give it a velvety quality which will make it better. Our good God cannot possibly take offense at this little refinement, since he himself is everything that is most perfect.' "

— as quoted by Brillat-Savarin from The Physiology of Taste, 1825

Sip up more decadent food quotes here.

Food Quote Friday: Aldus Huxley

"The scent organ was playing a delightfully refreshing Herbal Capriccio -- rippling arpeggios of thyme and lavender, of rosemary, basil, myrtle, tarragon; a series of daring modulations through the spice keys into ambergris; and a slow return through sandalwood, camphor, cedar and newmown hay (with occasional subtle touches of discord -- a whiff of kidney pudding, the faintest suspicion of pig's dung) back to the simple aromatics with which the piece began. The final blast of thyme died away; there was a round of applause; the lights went up."

— Aldus Huxley from Brave New World

Food Quote Friday: Mark Morris

"Fish and chips used to be a poor man's treat, but with the prices,
it's becoming a delicacy."

— Mark Morris, a London fishmonger

Love food quotes? Find more here.

Food Quote Friday: Marion Cabell Tyree

“I would say to housewives, be not daunted by one failure, nor by twenty. Resolve that you will have good bread, and never cease striving after this result till you have effected it. If persons without brains can accomplish this, why cannot you?”

— Marion Cabell Tyree from Housekeeping In Old Virginia

Be not daunted... more crusty, chewy food quotes can be found here.

Food Quote Friday: Otto von Bismarck

Sausages & cornichon at Le Baron Rouge, Paris

"Those who love sausage and obey the law should not watch either being made."

— Otto von Bismarck

Find more spicy food quotes here.

Food Quote Friday: Ray Nargis

"When I am old I'll drink whiskey in the morning
And coffee at night
And laugh and spit and swear wherever I want.
When I am old I'll help Girl Scouts across the street
Even if they don't want to go
And I won't have a car
And I won't have a bike
And I'll walk everywhere."

— from Ray Nargis' poem "When I am Old"

Love food quotes? Read more here.

Food Quote Friday: Col. Robert Johnson

"The time will come when this luscious golden tomato, rich in nutrition, a delight to the eye, a joy to the palate whether fried, baked, broiled or even eaten raw will form the foundation of a great garden industry."

- Col. Robert Johnson

Food Quote Friday: French Peasant in Love

A postcard sent by a peasant from the Vendée to his fiancée

"You're so fresh and lovely the only thing I can compare you to is fields of young cabbages before the caterpillars have got to them."

from Graham Robb's The Discovery of France

Fig Quote Friday: Platina

"Some figs are called Chian from a place, taking the name from a city in Syria. I think the African fig is so-called from that province. The anxious Cato brought its fruit into the Senate when he was seeking a third Punic War and badgering the senators, especially those who did not think it at all the stuff of Roman virtue that Carthage be destroyed. As soon as he said, 'How long do you think this fruit has been picked from its own tree? Since all agree that it is fresh, know that it was picked not three days ago at Carthage, so close is our enemy,' at once the Third Punic War was launched, by which Carthage, once the rival of the Roman Empire, was destroyed."

— Platina from On Right Pleasure and Good Health, 1465

Food Quote Friday: Anais Nin

"For the first time I know what it is to eat. I have gained four pounds. I get frantically hungry, and the food I eat gives me a lingering pleasure. I never ate before in this deep carnal way ... I want to bite into life and to be torn by it."

— Anaïs Nin (1903-1977), from Henry & June

Craving more luscious food quotes? Browse more here.

Food Quote Friday: Pablo Neruda

"the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness."

— Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) "Ode to Tomatoes"

Food Quote Friday: Wendell Berry

"Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup."

— Wendell Berry

Food Quote Friday: Eleanor Lerman

"So life lets you have a sandwich, and pie for your
late night dessert. (Pie for the dog, as well.) And
then life sends you back to bed, to dreamland,
while outside, the starfish drift through the channel,
with smiles on their starry faces as they head
out to deep water, to the far and boundless sea."

From Starfish by Eleanor Lerman

Food Quote Friday: Michael Ondaatje

"Gelato in Tavernelle" from thisismolly @flickr

"He walked out of the hospital into the sun, into open air for the first time in months, out of the green-lit rooms that lay like glass in his mind. He stood there breathing everything in, the hurry of everyone. First, he thought, I need shoes with rubber on the bottom. I need gelato."

— Michael Ondaatje in The English Patient

Food Quote Friday: Ulysses S. Grant

"I will not move my army without onions."

- Ulysses S. Grant (1822 -1885)

Food Quote Friday: Beethoven

A cool, soothing yogurt-spinach soup basking in my windowsill.

"Only the pure of heart can make a good soup."

– Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Hungry for more food quotes? Get 'em here.

Food Quote Friday: Andrew Marvell

The nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons, as I pass,
Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass

— Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) from "Thoughts in a Garden"

Food Quote Friday: Richard Shea

"One never knows where the most ambitious eaters among us live, but I am confident we will identify incredible eating talent during the 2007 circuit."

— Richard Shea, president of Major League Eating

Food Quote Friday: George Miller

"The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again."

— George Miller (1950-2003)

Food Quote Friday: Edward Bunyard

Pera Perla from the peerless NYPL Digital Image Gallery

"It is, in my view, the duty of an apple to be crisp and crunchable, but a pear should have such a texture as leads to silent consumption."

— Edward Bunyard

Food Quote Friday: Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Food Quote Friday: Josh Billings

Brekkie at Le Pain Quotidien

"Never work before breakfast; if you have to work before breakfast, eat your breakfast first."

— Josh Billings (1818-1885)

Food Quote Friday: Bill Buford

"A white truffle, which elsewhere might sell for hundreds of dollars, seemed easier to come by than something fresh and green. What could be got from the woods was free and amounted to a diurnal dining diary that everyone kept in their heads. May was wild asparagus, arugula, and artichokes. June was wild lettuce and stinging nettles. July was cherries and wild strawberries. August was forest berries. September was porcini."

-Bill Buford in Heat

Pile your basket with wild food quotes here.

Food Quote Friday: Thomas Wolfe

"There is no sight on earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves."

– Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)

Food Quote Friday: Chekhov

16 Varieties of Gooseberries from the NYPL

"A man wants nothing so badly as a gooseberry farm."

- Anton Chekhov

Craving another mouthful of tangy food quotes? Check 'em out here.

Food Quote Friday: Sydney Smith

Shallot gone wild from missginsu at flickr

"Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl and, half-suspected, animate the whole."

- Sydney Smith, (1771-1845) from "Recipe for a Salad"

Food Quote Friday: François Rabelais

Family of FSA client shredding cabbage, from the peerless NYPL Digital Gallery

"Oh thrice and four times happy... those who plant cabbages."

— François Rabelais

Food Quote Friday: Robert Lewis Stevenson

Cheese bounty at the Ferry Market in San Francisco from missginsu @ Flickr

"Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese — toasted, mostly."

— Robert Lewis Stevenson

Food Quote Friday: John Tyler Petee

Roast potato vendor and his movable oven on an east side street from the NYPL Digital Gallery

“Pray for peace and grace and spiritual food,
For wisdom and guidance, for all these are good,
but don't forget the potatoes.”

— John Tyler Pettee in "Prayer and Potatoes"

Food Quote Friday: Pyotr Kropoptkin

"If you want to know the people of a nation, I am sure you can judge a great deal
more about them from their cooking and eating traditions than you can from the words
and actions of their public officials."

-Pyotr Kropoptkin in Mutual Aid

Food Quote Friday: H. D. Thoreau

Brussels Sprouts with pecans — oiled, seasoned and ready to roast (from MissGinsu @ flickr)

"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of each. Grow green with the spring, yellow and ripe with autumn."

– Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Food Quote Friday: Nikos Kazantzakis

Tapas at La Bodegueta in Barcelona from MissGinsu @ Flickr

"How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness, is a simple heart."

— Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) from Zorba the Greek

Food Quote Friday: Cassells Household Guide

Mark Twain's 70th Birthday Party from the peerless NYPL Digital Gallery

"The millionaire too often lacks acquaintances of congenial tastes, and is compelled to fall back on gorgeous profusion to bestow lustre on his table. On the other hand, a person of more slender means is liable to fall into the error of supposing that his friends do not care to dine at his table, unless he imitates the surroundings of the wealthier classes. It occurs to comparatively few persons that the chief charm of a dinner-party lies in ease of manner on the part of the host and hostess, together with all the arrangements of the entertainment being in accordance with the income and the natural mode of living of the entertainer."

–Cassells Household Guide, c.1880

Food Quote Friday: James Beard (yes, again)

"I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought cookies one can find."

– James Beard (1903-1985)

Want to make the cookies? Here's the recipe. Happy Valentine's Day!

Shortbread Valentine Hearts (Makes about 20)

3/4 lb unsalted butter, softened (3 sticks)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups unbleached pastry flour
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the sugar crystals:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 drop red food color

Other equipment:
Cookie sheets
Heart-shaped cookie cutter
Cooling rack
Clean, dry jar with a tight-fitting lid

1. Pour the granulated sugar into the jar, add one drop of red food color, close tightly and shake well to distribute the color
throughout the sugar.
2. Cream butter and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Sift flour and salt together and blend into the butter mixture.
4. Gather dough, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour (or overnight).
5. Preheat oven to 350°F.
6. Roll the dough on a floured surface to 1/8-inch thick. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut cookies and
transfer them to ungreased cookie sheets with a metal spatula.
7. Chill for 30 minutes, sprinkle with colored sugar and bake until just golden, about 10 to 12 minutes.
8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Food Quote Friday: Xenophon

Ginger Gold Apple at the Midtown Farmers' Market in Minneapolis, MN

"You should watch yourself throughout your life, and notice what sort of meat and drink and what form of exercise suits your constitution, and you should regulate them in order to enjoy good health. For by such attention to yourself you can discover better than any doctor what suits your constitution."

— Xenophon, from Memorabilia: Recollections of Socrates

(Bountiful thanks to J.)

Food Quote Friday: Meyers & Martin

Granola and yogurt with fresh strawberries from MissGinsu @ Flickr

"...Manson’s violent, antisocial behavior might have been avoided if only he had put some chopped walnuts in his granola."

- Kristin Meyers | Joby Martin in the Monterey County Weekly

Find more crunchy, nutty food quotes here.

Food Quote Friday: Ming Tsai

Ginger-Duck Soup at the Slanted Door in San Francisco. I would eat this constantly if I were given the opportunity.

"I don't belive in putting a nuance of ginger in a dish such that you can barely taste it. If you say there is ginger in the sauce, you should really be able to taste it."

- Chef Ming Tsai

Find another batch of spicy food quotes here.

Food Quote Friday: "Doug Larson"

Some richly hued rainbow chard leaves from my CSA

"Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon."

-The (possibly fabricated?) English writer, Doug Larson, (1902-1981)

Food Quote Friday: Parisian Street Hawkers

Brassica capitata alba, et viridis = Cauolo Bolognese = Chou from the rich files of the NYPL Digital Gallery

"Choux gelées, les bons chou gelées!
Ils sont plus tendres que rosée,
Ils sont crû parmi les poirées
Et n'ont jamais été grêlées!"

"Frozen cabbages, good frozen cabbages!
They are more tender than the dawn,
They have grown amongst the white beet
And never been struck by hail!"

- Parisian street hawkers' cry, circa 1220-1900 (via the Larousse Gastronomique, of course)


More tender food quotes may be found here.

Food Quote Friday: Ananios (Ananias)

Image from the NYPL Digital Image Collection

"If a man were to lock in his house a hoard of gold, a few figs, and two or three men, he would find out how much better figs are than gold."

-Ananios (Ananias), 6th Century BCE

A hoard of food quotes can be found here.

Food Quote Friday: Fran Lebowitz

"If you're going to America, bring your own food."

-Fran Lebowitz

Ooo. Burn. Find more food quotes... here.