“Cooking and eating were growing to irritate her with their relentless necessity.”

“And I could tell she loved him. And although she was an evil fungus growing on 200 pounds of irritated lard, her feelings were real.”

“To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.”

“Cook things, eat them with other people. If you can tire your own bones while growing the beans, so much the better for you.”

“I invited my girlfriend over and made her dinner. I didn’t cook, but I did eat her.”

“Dad says that everyone invented baklava.” It occurs to me now to wonder what that means. Aunt Aya rolls her eyes.“Your father? He is the worst of the worst. He thinks he cooks and eats Arabic food but these walnuts were not grown from Jordanian earth and this butter was not made from Jordanian lambs. He is eating the shadow of a memory. He cooks to remember but the more he eats, the more he forgets.”