Kathmandu:

We are still delving into times past and present for what people say about their favourites. Like the old proverb, “Let the salad-maker be a spendthrift for oil, a miser for vinegar, a statesman for salt, a madman for mixing”.

The first mention of an apple pie was a strange one by English writer Robert Greene in 1590 when he said, “Thy breath is like the steame of apple-pyes”. It set everyone in London off sniffing. The Puritan Cromwell, who was responsible for executing Charles I, said, “Some people have food but no appetite; others have an appetite but no food. I have both, the Lord’s name be praised.” Meanwhile Charles had a hearty condemned man’s breakfast of claret and swan pie. He apparently had the same appetite as Cromwell.

Of fruit it is said, “They are gold in the morning, silver in the afternoon and lead at night”. Talking about nights, King Louis XIV’s second wife Madame de Maintenon didn’t approve of the green pea. She said, “Some ladies, even after having supped at the royal table, and well supped too, returning to their own homes, at the risk of suffering from indigestion, will again eat peas before going to bed. It is both fashion and madness.”

Even as he died, British Prime Minister William Pitt’s last words in 1806 were, “I think I could eat one of Bellamy’s meat pies.”

A little late in 1813, the writer Jane Austen, who had a sweet tooth wrote in a letter, “Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness” adding, “You know how interesting the purchase of a sponge cake is to me”.

Another homily attributed to writer Adelle Davis is, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a Prince, and dinner like a pauper”. Author Alice May Brock sums up different kinds of food and garlic with, “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”.

Said Fran Lebowitz, “Food is an important part of a balanced diet” adding “My favourite animal is steak”.

Restaurants are advised to remember writer GK Chesterton’s saying: “Music with dinner is an insult, both to the cook and the violinist.”

The columnist Calvin Trillin defines marriage as “Not merely sharing the fettuccini, but sharing the burden of finding the fettuccini restaurant in the first place”.

Of books, he as a writer, says, “The average trade book has a shelf life of between milk and yoghurt, except for books by any member of the Irving Wallace family — they have preservatives”.

Trillin on Judaism, “Following the Jewish tradition, a dispenser of schmaltz (liquid chicken fat) is kept on the table to give the vampires heartburn if they get through the garlic defence.”

Of Chinese food he is cautious. “When it comes to Chinese food, I have always operated under the policy that the less known about the preparation the better. A wise diner who is invited to visit the kitchen replies by saying, as politely as possible, that he has a pressing engagement elsewhere.”

At the beginning of his career Trillin wrote, “It happens to be a matter of record that I was first in print with the discovery that the tastelessness of the food offered in American clubs varies in direct proportion to the exclusiveness of the club,” and he added, “I never eat in a restaurant that’s over a hundred feet off the ground and won’t stand still.”

The last word goes to him, “Health food makes me sick.”