British - Journalist | March 7, 1974 -
Years ago, during a John Grisham phase, I tried to pinpoint exactly why I found Grisham's often predictable legal thrillers quite so comforting. The best answer I could come up with was the frequency with which Grisham tells us that his lead characters are sipping coffee. When it comes to food and drink, predictability can console.
Bee Wilson
CoffeeFoodBestLegalWhyDrink
The saddest utensil I've come across is an 'anti-loneliness ramen bowl,' which holds your iPhone to keep you company as you slurp your solitary bowl of noodles. But the iPhone cannot return your gaze or reassure you that you didn't squeeze too much lime into the soup, though maybe a dinner-conversation app is only a matter of time.
TimeSoupYouToo MuchMatterGaze
What strikes me, the more I cook, is that the best recipes are ones where the basic anatomy is so sound it will survive multiple adjustments. When a recipe has good bones, you can change the seasoning, double the garlic, swap lime for lemon, and it still turns out delicious.
ChangeGoodBestMeSurviveYou
One thing I always make - and I'm sure this is partly to do with memory and yearning and because I've made it ever since my children were born - I make gingerbread every year. And it's partly just the perfume of the spices in the house, makes it smell like winter to me.
WinterChildrenMemoryMeYearBorn
When we consume vastly more protein than we need, our kidneys struggle to process it, resulting in protein in the urine. Too much protein from meat may also contribute to kidney stones.
StruggleProcessToo MuchNeedMeat
I'd rather have a good food - lots and lots of different varieties of good foods - than search for something perfect.
GoodFoodGood FoodSearchPerfect
The great American food writer M. F. K. Fisher once wrote an essay called 'The Anatomy of a Recipe.' To have a good anatomy, in her view, a recipe should have a sense of logical progression. She despaired of recipes with 'anatomical faults,' where the reader is told to make a cake batter and only then to grease the loaf pans.
GoodGreatFoodCakeAmericanView
I appreciate recipes that tell you what can be changed and what must remain fixed. 'The Zuni Cafe Cookbook' by the late Judy Rodgers is superb at this.
AppreciateYouLateCafeTellMust
A recipe is not an exact formula, but it does need a certain structure. When the bones are right, you can dress it in many ways.
DressYouStructureNeedRightMany
Learning to cook in the 1990s, I thought 'proper olives' meant black. The benchmark was Kalamata from Greece: purple-black with an almost mushroomy depth of flavour. Other fine examples were tiny Coquilles from Nice and plump round Tanches from Nyons.
LearningBlackThoughtNiceDepth
The comeback of true green olives was part of a Spanish food revival in the early 2000s. I credit Sam and Sam Clark of Moro Restaurant in London with making them cool again.
FoodCoolGreenComebackRestaurant
There's a new dividing line in olives: between those who prefer Nocellara to all other varieties, and the people who have never tasted them.
PeopleNewNeverLineWhoBetween
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Bee Wilson quotes