Emily

“My head was swimming now, a pleasantly intoxicated dream state. I no longer knew or even cared what century it was. I was numb from the waist down, circulation cut off long ago cut off to my legs. The heavily painted faces and costumes of my geisha companions. the spare black-and-white walls the choo-choo train of tiny plates of jewel-like dishes - everything melted together into that rear full mind/body narcotized zone where everything/nothing matters. You know you're having one of the meals of your life but are no longer intimidated by it. Consciousness of time and expense go out the window. Cares about table manners disappear. What happens next, later, or even tomorrow, fades into insignificance. You become a happy passenger, completely submitting to whatever happens next, confident that somehow the whole universe is in particularly benevolent alignment, that nothing could possibly distract or detract from the wonderfulness of the moment.”
― Anthony Bourdain, A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines

“I lifted the description ' a bewildering array of stars' once from a far better writer - I can't remember who now, only that I stole it - and that expression came to mind as I stared up at an awe-inspiring sky over the Sahara, the bright, penetrating lights, the quick drop of comets, a cold moon, which made the rippling patterns sand look like a frozen sea. The universe was large all right, but no larger, it appeared, than the whole wide world ahead of me.”
― Anthony Bourdain, A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines

“I like the idea of having to travel to experience a French Laundry meal. The journey is part of the experience - or was for me - an expression of the seriousness of one's intent, of the otherness of everything Keller. I liked looking out the window and seeing hills and countryside. I don't know if I want to be able to just to pick up the phone, make a reservation, and, sooner or later, simply hop in a cab and zip down to Columbus Circle. One doesn't take the A train to Mecca. That experience, like the French Laundry, should be a pilgrimage.”
― Anthony Bourdain, A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines

“Memory - that's a powerful tool in any chef's kit. Used skillfully, it can be devastatingly effective.”
― Anthony Bourdain, A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines