The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee Quotes

“I swear, curry is the best hangover cure," Iori said.
"Well, it does contain turmeric," Hozumi pointed out.
"Smarty-pants.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“I want to be able to tell you that I understand, but I don't have the same scars that you do. I'm so frustrated with myself for not being able to empathize with you."
If only I could overwrite his memories.
If I couldn't understand him, then the least I could do was to paint over his painful memories. I wanted to paint them in fun, vibrant colors.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“There are people who are in need of that somebody who will come in and track down the regret, loneliness, and insecurities they've long buried away. There are times when they need somebody like you, who can break into people's hearts with the vigor of a warrior brandishing a huge naginata sword.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“Forgiving people is something you do after your rage pushes you to the breaking point." Iori spoke scornfully, and Hozumi widened his eyes. "If you have to forgive them right from the beginning, where are you supposed to put the anger you feel for these idiots? Where are you supposed to go, after being so humiliated, with no one standing up for you?”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“What value is there in a vote you've gained from becoming a dumping ground for the shallow emotions of shallow people?”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“Did you really not make him a single dish that you liked?" I asked.
After deliberating for a moment, Kikuno shook her head.
"I didn't get to it in the end. I'm from Nagano, so when I cook for myself, I often make dishes using vegetables from back home. When I make shogayaki, for example, I add some grated apple to the soy sauce and mirin, and massage the marinade into the pork before frying it."
"That sounds so good, though!"
"But when I made shogayaki for him, I always followed the exact recipe I learned in class. The sugar content in apples makes it easy to burn, you see. Burnt meat doesn't look great. It was safer to use a classic recipe that everyone was familiar with. I was too scared to serve him flavors from home. But if I had..."
Maybe things would be different, I finished the thought for her.
She sipped her brandy as though she was trying to wash down the words that had made it to the tip of her tongue.
There are things in this world that are "right" according to everyone else. Then there are things that are "right" only to you. Sure, we all know that we should follow what feels right to you. But how many people can really say, "I'm right," when everyone else is shouting out a different answer?”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“Whenever I found myself in a cake shop, I'd always been tempted by the classic ones, like strawberry shortcake, chocolate cake, or cheesecake. I had never thought of carrot cake being very, well, cake-like. I don't know how I didn't realize this before, but for the first time, I was seeing that carrot cake was as satisfying as the classic cakes.
Sweet-toothed Hozumi spoke with uncharacteristic eloquence: "It's sweet, but I can really feel the zing of the spices. And the cream cheese gives it a tang that works wonderfully well together. It has the potential of being as delicious as ice cream soda.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“When she taught me the recipe, Makiko told me that her potato salad tasted the best when you used a potato variety called Destroyer. As implied by its name, these potatoes have a sinister look to them. They are marked with red patches, reminiscent of a pro wrestler's mask, hence the name. After comparing many different varieties, Makiko fell in love with the rich, full-bodied flavor, so much so that for a while she even contemplated growing them on her veranda.
In the Kanto region, Destroyer potatoes aren't a common variety. Unlike Danshaku or May Queen potatoes, they're rarely distributed in the markets unless it's early summer. One night, after Makiko kept on shouting "I want some Destroyer potatoes!" at the bar, one of her customers drunkenly started to call her "Makiko the Destroyer." From then on, the nickname took on a life of its own, and that was apparently how rumors of "Makiko the Destroyer of Sangenjaya" began to spread.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“I would like the cheese inside the patty, as well as on top of it, and a soft-boiled egg on the side. Oh, and a big grilled sausage, too."
She was almost shouting. Her eyes looked like two glass marbles as she gazed into me.
There's no better feeling than satisfying someone's food cravings after they've made it through a really long day.
"Coming right up!"
As Iori burst back through the door proudly proffering the cheese, Nagi's face broke out into a smile. After I quickly melted the cheese, the steaks, as well as some accompaniments, were ready. I served them with rice and bowls of soup.
I sank my knife into the meal, letting the cheesy center ooze out and spill onto the sizzling hot plate. I lifted it to my mouth along with the cheddar cheese topping. The hot juices from the meat filled every corner of my mouth.
"I've been craving this for a really long time!" Nagi blew her hamburger steak before taking an enormous bite.
As she chewed, her hands cradled her cheeks, and she squeezed her eyes shut. She let out an enormous sigh.
"This is heavenly! Wow... it's been a long day."
Nagi let her arms go limp and sank into the sofa with her eyes closed. She looked as though she had realized just how exhausted she was.
As requested by Nagi, I had topped each patty with lashings of cheese and had also garnished it with crunchy cheese crisps. Heavy on our stomachs? Damn right it was! Coupled with the rice and soup, she was going to be happily well-fed.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“To be able to fight pain, you need the empathy of others. Once you start believing that there are other people who share the same emotions as you, that's when you finally start to feel like maybe you can move forward.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“Choosing your own path instead of following everyone else is a scary thing. The more we grow older, the more we feel like time is running out. That will probably never change.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“Yet we try to comfort ourselves by giving a name to everything. We tend to think that labeling our emotions is better than having to carry undecipherable, unclear feelings. When our emotions are in a mess, instead of just leaving them that way, we try to process them and kick them out of our hearts, because it feels like that is the “correct” thing to do.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“for many women, privacy becomes a foreign concept once they have kids. They share their bedroom with their family. Even if the kids have their own rooms, and the husbands have their own office, there’s no such thing as a mother’s room. It’s hard for women to create a private space for themselves. Eventually, even the mother herself becomes a thing that is shared. And the portion of her time and energy that’s allocated for herself becomes smaller and smaller. It’s important for women to try and consciously create a space that’s not shared with anyone else, no matter how small.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“Before you know it, you begin to think that you need to give the other person something of value in order to have an equal relationship with them. Once that way of thinking gets stuck in your mind, it doesn’t let you go.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“I was going through a difficult time, and I turned to books. I found the words of people who were in the middle of their struggles more meaningful than those of people who had already made it through to the other side of the tunnel.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

“I didn’t want him to think that I was a high-maintenance woman. The fact that I’m thirty-six and single automatically puts me in that category. It doesn’t matter if nothing about me has changed or if I wasn’t interested in marriage. If I want to have a romantic relationship with someone, the weight of being in the ‘high-maintenance woman’ category keeps growing, whether I like it or not. It gets so heavy. Gives me knots in my shoulders.”
― Saki Kawashiro, The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee