“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”

“I had done this. I had pulled my life apart. I would never, ever be safe again.”

“...it was so rich and exotic I was seduced into taking one bite and then another as I tried to chase the flavors back to their source.”

“Every restaurant is a theater, and the truly great ones allow us to indulge in the fantasy that we are rich and powerful. When restaurants hold up their end of the bargain, they give us the illusion of being surrounded by servants intent on ensuring our happiness and offering extraordinary food. But even modest restaurants offer the opportunity to become someone else, at least for a little while. Restaurants free us from mundane reality; that is part of their charm. When you walk through the door, you are entering neutral territory where you are free to be whoever you choose for the duration of the meal.”

“...I was not prepared for the feel of the noodles in my mouth, or the purity of the taste. I had been in Japan for almost a month, but I had never experiences anything like this. The noodles quivered as if they were alive, and leapt into my mouth where they vibrated as if playing inaudible music.”

“Anyone who thinks they're too grown up or too sophisticated to eat caramel corn, is not invited to my house for dinner”

“I felt that I was really living in the moment. I did not know where my life was going, but right now the future did not trouble me.”