A Place at the Table Quotes

“...a profound opportunity to embrace impermanence. How those of us who are renters are perhaps in a better position to recognize that our time here on earth is a borrowed gift. That it's not ours to own, though it is ours to relish. That it's still worth beautifying, even though it's temporary. So paint the walls, plant tomatoes in pots on the fire escape, but don't cling. Because eventually we will all be asked to move on.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“I have a wedge of Brie and some crackers in the pantry, and I could slice a pear or an apple and drizzle the fruit with some orange blossom honey. That always makes a nice accompaniment for cheese. I've got some olives, too, Lucques. I wonder if I have time to make cheese sticks. I use store-bought puff pastry, roll it out, sprinkle it with salt and red pepper flakes and grated Parmesan, then cut the dough into strips, twist them, and bake. They are particularly delicious with a glass of Champagne, especially when you serve the cheese sticks warm.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“Bobby is a good southern boy,” says Sebastian. “Which means he thinks plenty of mean things but never says them aloud.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“For the majority of my life, this is what I have done. Justified the adult children peeing in the baby pool. I want to make my way into deeper waters, with adults who can actually swim.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“So paint the walls, plant tomatoes in pots on the fire escape, but don't cling.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“That it’s still worth beautifying, even though it’s temporary.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“...through much of my life, I have been comforted by the presence of God. It wasn't that I felt protected exactly, but rather accompanied by something holy when I should have felt most alone.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“curling-iron bangs”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“Italian family”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“I must not have been paying attention when the announcement was made. My whole life it seems I have not paid attention.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“There is nothing more belittling than being lied to.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“She thinks she understands the world just because she’s read a bunch of books.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“I loved the way I felt about God when I was a child. The universe was good, and God loved me and I belonged.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“We believed the force of our love would right all wrongs.” “But sometimes love isn’t enough,”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“You never know what private grief others are going through.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“But now . . . well . . . let’s just say that the singular advantage of old age is you lose your fear of other people’s judgments.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“You don’t know how alone you are until you move by yourself to New York City.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“But it seems to me that the priest you encountered believes in a small god, a god that can be shrunk inside a cracker that was produced in a factory somewhere and sold in bulk. It seems to me that you need a God bigger than that, and I don’t think you should let your experience today stop you from looking for it. You understand what I’m saying?”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“Martinis and Champagne were passed, along with a selection of Bobby's best hors d'oeuvres: potato pillows dotted with crème fraîche and caviar, crawfish spread served in toast cups, miniature crab cakes topped with rémoulade, tiny tuna burgers with fresh grated ginger, served on homemade brioche (Alice's recipe, which I discovered was virtually indistinguishable from what my father used to bake for our family). There were all sorts of desserts, too, mostly southern. But the hit of the evening was, as always, Bobby's banana pudding, made with pound cake instead of Nilla wafers. For the party Bobby fixed individual puddings, served in shot glasses, topped with whipped cream instead of meringue.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“Maybe I'll go to Rosedale's, get some really good seafood. Maybe I'll see if there is a recipe in here for shrimp and grits, which Taffy prepared for me whenever I visited Atlanta, knowing it's my favorite. Whenever I asked my mother-in-law for the recipe she would smile and say, "Oh, it's just a little of this and a little of that."
Except, no, I wouldn't be able to find stone-ground grits in the city and would have to put the shrimp over rice instead. Maybe I'll make the trout stuffed with bread crumbs, shallots, and lemon slices, or the chicken and dumplings, which are simply biscuits made with cream, cooked on top of a chicken stew. I keep turning the pages of the book, thinking I might make dessert, too. Something comforting. Rice pudding, or a fruit cobbler. The first dessert listed is called "Juneteenth Cake." Juneteenth, I read, is a celebration of blacks' emancipation from slavery. The cake is made from fresh coconuts, both the grated meat and the milk from within. Sounds delicious but laborious.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“The crab cakes are golden brown, each topped with a little salad of sliced avocado, green onion, and grapefruit supremes. I fix myself a bite with all of the dish's components. The sweet crabmeat, the crisp, buttery breading, the citrus and avocado salad, splashed with a fruity vinaigrette- together it's a perfect combination of flavors.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“The dinner Parrin serves- vichyssoise, squab, rice pilaf, green salad, chocolate-orange mousse- is all very "of the moment" and delicious, as I knew it would be.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“In addition to a stack of small white plates, a basket of rolled cloth napkins, and a pile of polished silver forks, there is baked Brie in puff pastry, caviar with blinis (caviar!), a shallow bowl of beautiful purple grapes with a sterling silver pair of scissors placed beside it, poached shrimp with cocktail sauce, and a pale pink mold in the shape of a fish with crackers surrounding it, thin lemon slices and capers on top.
"That's not the salmon mousse from the Silver Palate, is it?" I ask. The salmon mousse from the Silver Palate is perhaps my favorite thing to eat in the world.
"Oh shoot," she says, and I can all but imagine her stomping her little foot. "You found me out. Is it just so tacky I brought in food from the city? I did press the mousse into the fish mold myself, and I also fixed the Brie. That is, I put some apricot jam on it and wrapped it in Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“When Kate arrived, Alice offered her breakfast: strong coffee, coffee cake made from a sweet yeast dough, and bacon baked on a cookie sheet in the oven. When they finished eating, Alice handed Kate a black-and-white-speckled notebook filled with details about her childhood in North Carolina.
With growing interest Kate read about the gentle slope of land upon which Alice's family built their farm and how in the mornings the dew looked like steam rising from the grass. She read about the pigs Alice's family raised, how they were finished on acorns, making their meat unbelievably silky. Kate read about Alice's mother's cooking, how she could turn the humblest ingredients into something magical: creamy chess pies, tender squirrel stew, butter nut cookies at Christmas time that were both salty and sweet.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“For what Mama would serve were she hosting a brunch: sausage, egg, and cheese casserole, coffeecake swirled with cinnamon, pecans, and brown sugar, grits baked with garlic and cheese.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“Is this lox shmear?" Dahlia asks, opening the fancy gift bag I couldn't really afford but purchased anyway and pulling out the Mason jar packed with the pink spread.
"Crawfish spread," I say. "But I imagine it would go very nicely on a bagel, same as lox."
I am underplaying how delicious this stuff is. It's just poached crawfish tails blended in the Cuisinart with lots of butter and garlic, and a little cayenne pepper, but it's become my favorite thing in the world to eat. I serve it at the restaurant as an appetizer with toast points.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“It's so cold here now that I think I will make some sort of braise, although it can't be one of her recipes, it can't be duck with green olives or Boeuf Bourgignon. Maybe I'll do short ribs with mashed potatoes, or something even simpler, maybe even your fried chicken. Alice likes things simple; this I know from reading her book. And it must be comforting, and provide her with a little taste of the South. I'm thinking of banana pudding for dessert, but instead of using Nilla wafers, I'm going to use cut-up cubes of toasted pound cake made from your recipe, layering them with homemade vanilla pudding and ripe bananas, and topping the whole thing with meringue. Maybe I'll make little individual puddings in ramekins, to honor the mousse Alice Stone made famous at the café.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“Not that I don't treat myself to a Papaya King hotdog sometimes, or maybe a falafel sandwich from a street vendor. And occasionally Gus will take me somewhere nice to "develop my palate," but that's rare. Though I can't afford anything sold at them, I do love wandering through the fancy gourmet markets, especially the one at Bloomingdale's. That place is so amazing, Meemaw. You have never seen so much good stuff in one place. I looked for Schrafft's when I first got here- wanting to eat a butterscotch sundae like the one you told me about- but I think they've all shut down. Mostly I shop at this really cheap grocery store I found in Spanish Harlem. They sell cheap cuts of meat- oxtail, trotters, and pigs' ears- as well as all varieties of offal. (I always think of you, Meemaw, when eating livers, think of you eating them every Sunday after church at The Colonnade.) I like to poke around the Asian markets, too, bringing home gingerroot, lemongrass, fish sauce, dehydrated shrimp, wonton wrappers, dozens of different chilies, and soft little candies wrapped in rice paper that dissolves in your mouth. As a special treat I go to the green market in Union Square on the weekends- which is a farmer's market smack-dab in the middle of downtown. Even though I really can't afford the produce, I'll often splurge anyway, arriving home with one or two perfect things- carrots the color of rubies with bright springy tops, or a little bag of fingerling potatoes, their skins delicate and golden.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“She serves us, pouring the iced tea into red plastic cups, piling chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and a couple of biscuits each onto our plates. It's an almost entirely brown meal. Mama would say it needs a colorful vegetable to complete it, but brown or not, it tastes good. Salty and hot, except for the tea of course, which is cold and sweet.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table

“Plus, Mama packed a good picnic. That night she brought us plenty of ham sandwiches and Lay's potato chips, plus orange slices and Oatmeal Caramelitas, a salty, buttery layer of oats topped with chocolate chips, walnuts, and melted Kraft caramels.”
― Susan Rebecca White, A Place at the Table