[One] should not so much respect what he eats, as with whom he eats.
Michel de Montaigne Essays
Stuffed Mussels
Why mussels - not clams?
Mussels are one of the world's most plentiful and delicious shellfish.
The meat is creamy golden-yellow, tender and sweet as a small clam.
Julia Child Everyday French Cooking
[The mussel] is one of the most abundant seafoods in America and one
of the most neglected.
James Beard Fish Cookery
I love mussels.
Laura von Behren
Caviar
There is more simplicity in the [person] who eats caviar on impulse
than in [one] who eats Grapenuts on principal.
G. K. Chesterton
Champagne
Here's to champagne, the drink divine
That makes us forget our troubles;
It's made of a dollar's worth of wine
And three dollars worth of bubbles.
Anon.
With about his fourth sip he said, "I'd be enjoying this more--or less,
I don't know which--if I knew the price. Of course you want something,
or Nero Wolfe does. What?"
Archie Goodwin Please Pass the Guilt
Germiny à l'Oseille
Beautiful soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!
Beautiful soup! Who cares for fish,
Game, or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup!
Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup?
Lewis Carroll Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The making of a good soup is quite an art, and many otherwise clever
cooks do not possess the tour de main necessary to its successful preparation.
Either they over-complicate the composition of the dish, or they attach
only minor importance to it, reserving their talents for the meal itself,
and so it frequently happens that the soup does not correspond to the quality
of the rest of the dishes; nevertheless, the quality of the soup should
foretell that of the entire meal.
Madame Seignobos Comment on forme une cuisinière
Poached
and Truffled Chicken Breast
You first parents of the human race...who ruined yourselves for an
apple, what might you not have done for a truffled turkey?
Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin La Physiologie du goût
The truffle is not an outright aphrodisiac, but it may in certain circumstances
make women more affectionate and men more amiable.
Alexandre Dumas (père) Grand dictionnaire de cuisine
Broccoli
"It's broccoli, dear."
"I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it."
E. B. White caption of cartoon in The New Yorker
Herbed Stuffed
Potatoes
What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty
decent sort of fellow.
A. A. Milne Not That it Matters
Chablis
Soujouk
with Grapes and Apricots
Dine, v: to eat a good dinner in good company, and eat it slow. In
dining, as distinguished from mere feeding, the palate and the stomach
never ask the hand, "What are you giving us?"
Ambrose Bierce The Devil's Dictionary
Beer
Most people hate the taste of beer--to begin with. It is, however,
a prejudice that many have been able to overcome.
Winston Churchill
Blackberry Sorbet
Shortbread
Chocolate Truffles
The Fine Arts are five in number: Painting, Music, Sculpture, Poetry
and Architecture--whereof the principal branch is confectionery.
Antonin Carème
.......................
Coffee
Liqueurs
Without a liqueur and a coffee the best of meals ends as tamely as
a pretty mermaid.
H. Warner Allen Through the Wine Glass
After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one's own relatives.
Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance
No one is drunk so long as he can lie on the floor without holding on.
Anon.
It's all right, Arthur, the white wine came up with the fish.
Herman Mankiewicz
Some people are alarmed if the company are thirteen in number. The number
is only to be dreaded when the dinner is provided but for twelve.
Lancelot Sturgeon Essays on Good Living