Mark Kurlansky Quotes

17 Sourced Quotes

THE ROMANS SALTED their greens, believing this to counteract the natural bitterness, which is the origin of the word salad, salted.

Mark Kurlansky
I did not realize at the time, as I have discovered since, that anyone who attempts any thing original in this world must expect a bit of ridicule. Clarence Birdseye

Mark Kurlansky
The egg creams of Avenue A in New York and the root beer float....are among the high points of American gastronomic inventiveness.

Mark Kurlansky
Whenever I was called a gourmet, I suspected I was being accused of something at least slightly unpleasant. But that was before I heard the term "foodie." I am still not sure that a gourmet is a good thing to be, but it must be better than a foodie.

Mark Kurlansky
Nature, the ultimate pragmatist, doggedly searches for something that works. But as the cockroach demonstrates, what works best in nature does not always appeal to us.

Mark Kurlansky
If ever there was a fish made to endure, it is the Atlantic cod... But it has among its predators - man, an openmouthed species greedier than cod.

Mark Kurlansky
Chloride is essential for digestion and in respiration. Without sodium, which the body cannot manufacture, the body would be unable to transport nutrients or oxygen, transmit nerve impulses, or move muscles, including the heart.

Mark Kurlansky
A true gourmet - a judge - has the wisdom to know when to stop eating.

Mark Kurlansky
In nineteenth-century Russia, sauerkraut was valued more than caviar,

Mark Kurlansky
Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture.

Mark Kurlansky
Food is about agriculture, about ecology, about man's relationship with nature, about the climate, about nation-building, cultural struggles, friends and enemies, alliances, wars, religion. It is about memory and tradition and, at times, even about sex.

Mark Kurlansky
In spite of muzzling the press, imprisoning thousands, and engaging in torture, kidnapping and murder, the Socialist government was still vulnerable to the accusation of being "soft on Basques."

Mark Kurlansky
On a power cut while in a bar in the Dominican Republic:
Without the music to shout over, few people bothered saying anything.

Mark Kurlansky
Modern people have seen too many chemicals and are ready to go back to eating dirt.

Mark Kurlansky
In every age, people are certain that only the things they have deemed valuable have true value. The search for love and the search for wealth are always the two best stories. But while a love story is timeless, the story of a quest for wealth, given enough time, will always seem like the vain pursuit of a mirage.

Mark Kurlansky
A gourmet knows that the best part is not always the expensive part, and he will find that part, and then he will share it. A gourmet should want to share.

Mark Kurlansky
The history of the Americas is one of constant warfare over salt,

Mark Kurlansky