Everyone was a little tense … but that’s as far as it went until the quail were served. It wasn’t enough he’d made his wife jealous earlier, for when Pedro tasted his first mouthful, he couldn’t help closing his eyes in voluptuous delight and exclaiming, ‘It’s a dish for the gods!’

(Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate, 1989)

The smell of blue grapes is sweet…

The intoxicating view tantalizes.

Your voice is hollow and cheerless,

But I’m not feeling sorry for anyone, not anyone.

(Anna Akhmatova, 1889-1966)

Herodotus, the Greek writer of the fifth century B.C. known as the ‘father of history’, explained that gathering cassia, a form of cinnamon, involved donning a full-body suit made from the hides of oxen, covering everything but the eyes.

(Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity by Atlantic Books, 2009)

Wine was created for the solace of man, as a slight compensation, we are told, for the creation of woman, who was merely created to keep him on the move and busy generally.

(The Savoy Cocktail Book, Constable & Co., London 1930)

Pudding (like parking and steak) is now a French word. Indeed, it entered the language in the seventeenth century, and almost every bakery in Paris sells its version of what was originally a simple English bread pudding.

(re Pudding Diplomate in Le Cordon Blue At Home, Hearts Books, New York, 1991)

I love bread pudding… Happy writing!