Could You Repeat That? 169
Fever Dream, Samanta Schweblin
You're confused, and that's not good for this story. I'm a normal boy.
This isn't normal, David. There's only darkness, and you're talking into my ear.
Fairest: The Return of the Maharaja (graphic novel), Sean E. Williams
CROCODILE: It's been so long since I've had a good filling meal. No more elephants, no more camels...and little fish aren't nearly as filling as the inhabitants of the village were.
CHARMING: You're either really lonely, or you're the chattiest crocodile I've ever met.
Cardamom and Lime, Sarah Al-Hamad
Perhaps because alcohol is forbidden and mostly avoided in the Gulf, food is Big. It occupies a central position in local life and culture. It is a means of communication and a social marker, a peace-offering, a way of demonstrating largesse and hospitality to friends and family, a form of one-upmanship, a conversation starter, a boredom buster, and an arena for female competitiveness.
Fairest: Of Men and Mice (graphic novel), Marc Andreyko
And if there's one thing I hate more than trolls, it's indentured servitude.
Just ask my stepmother.
DICKORY: Interior monologuing again, are we?
So Much Blue, Percival Everett
While I was standing in the shower, while the hot water ran out, while I adjusted to the cold water, I imagined that I might cry, but I didn't. I washed my hair.
Hellblazer: The Gift (graphic novel), Mike Carey
ANGIE: She is gonna need you, though, if this works, I mean.
GEMMA: Big "if." Isn't it?
ANGIE: Fuck a dust-pan, girl. This is John we're talking about. If he's down in the ground where the dead men go--it's the dead men I feel sorry for.
The End of Eddy, Edouard Louis
(And I can't stop asking myself, years later, what the real meaning of complicity is, what the boundaries are that separate complicity from active participation, from innocence, from carelessness, from fear.)
Onions Etcetera, Kate Winslow and Guy Ambrosino
Yellow onions. They're our North Star. If we have yellow onions in the house, we can always find our way to dinner.
Dear Cyborgs, Eugene Lim
Now we're all Icarus. Cyborgs with our wings. An augmented reality. The Cassandra warnings forgotten. And it's always on, always simultaneous: the soaring and the panic, spasm and grace, flight and fall.
Burn it to the ground.
Burn it to the motherfucking ground.
Shifting Selves, Mia Marshall
I tilted my head and tried to soften my expression. Jonathan took a step backward.
Fairest: The Clamor for Glamour (graphic novel), Mark Buckingham
MEGHAN: The truth. I don't want to hear any fairy tales.
REYNARD: Meghan, my love, I'm afraid that's going to be unavoidable.
Aquaman: Throne of Atlantis (graphic novel), Geoff Johns
AQUAMAN: I don't see or hear anything. Had to be Atlantean long range weapons.
BATMAN: How did they know you were with me?
AQUAMAN: They were aiming for you, not me. When I wrote those war plans, I knew even before we met that you'd be a threat.
BATMAN: I'm flattered.
Lucky Boy, Shanthi Sekaran
There is a beast in all of us. Only the worst things can bring it ripping through the human veneer. On that cold linoleum afternoon, Soli's screams vibrated through her abdomen and up her chest, relentless and pure, and broke from her lips in a swarm.
Japanese Farm Food, Nancy Singleton Hachisu
Rice washed lackadaisically will lose a bit of spark.
Into the Drowning Deep, Mira Grant
Places like this, times like this, they were never meant to last. They were one frozen moment in a falling catastrophe, and their beauty was that they'd existed, even if it was only for a little while, even if they'd never been really real.
John Constantine, Hellblazer: Bloodlines (graphic novel), Garth Ennis
MARSTON: I had a feeling that serving your country wouldn't be motivation enough. In fact, I'm sure you're planning to go straight to the press as soon as you've stopped the killing, aren't you?
CONSTANTINE: Funny how "serving your country" always means "serving the poeple in charge of it"...
Tartine All Day, Elisabeth Pruett
Part of the fun and reward of recipe development is when you hit upon a method, ratio, trick, or particular combination of ingredients that makes all the failures worth it.
The Book of Joan, Lidia Yuknavitch
I've been thinking about how our desires and fears manifest in our bodies, and how our bodies, carrying these stories, resist the narratives our culture places on top of us, starting the moment we are born. It's our idiotic minds that overwrite everything. But the body has a point of view. It keeps its secrets. Makes its own stories. By any means necessary.
Simple Thai Food, Leela Punyaratabandhu
At the same time, many American cooks feel that cracking open a can of Thai curry paste is cheating. They worry that if they take shortcuts, an angry Thai grandmother will jump out from behind the nearest potted plant with a stun gun.
The Fearless Baker, Erin Jeanne McDowell
If the dough gets too cold, just let it soften for a moment at room temperature, or hit it with your rolling pin until it becomes malleable (this is also excellent for anger management purposes).
Bouchon Bakery, Thomas Keller
I've always believed that when you have a special, expensive ingredient--truffles, for instance, or foie gras--it's important to offer it in abundance so that people know what the fuss is about.
Sweet, Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh
It's one of life's great pleasures, we think, to know that, whatever else is going on in your day, you're only ever about 14 minutes away from a perfectly baked chocolate chip cookie.
Momofuku Milk Bar, Christina Tosi
By no means do you need to use a Robot Coupe in your home kitchen, but you definitely need a food processor of some sort for grinding down crumbs for pie crusts or grinding nut brittles into almost a powder. If you don't have one, you should get married so you can put one on your registry.
Aquaman: Death of a King (graphic novel), Geoff Johns
MERA: I came here because Arthur would've said to show you the courtesy, but I will not listen to threats. I have a dog to feed. I'm leaving.
POLICE OFFICER: You really want to add resisting arrest on top of everything else? You try to leave and you're going to make things worse.
MERA: Worse for who?
Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner, Ashley Christensen
Is the customer always right? Who can say. Most importantly at Poole's, the guest is always welcome.
Half Baked Harvest, Tieghan Gerard
Occasionally, there was lettuce on the table, too, but no one really touched that.
Fables: Book One (graphic novel), Bill Willingham
SNOW WHITE: All sorts of things never occur to you, dear. I suppose it would have been too much to expect to be born smart as well as privileged.
PRINCE CHARMING: Ouch.
Bravetart: Iconic American Desserts, Stella Parks
I'd like to go back in time and punch the guy who decided to give two entirely different systems of measurements the same name.
Aquaman: Sea of Storms (graphic novel), Jeff Parker
MARGA: And many say that just because she's your consort doesn't make her our queen.
MERA: Ouch.
MARGA: They wish Arthur would wear his crown.
ARTHUR: I wear the belt! The belt counts!
Dorie's Cookies, Dorie Greenspan
If you don't have time to bring your butter to room temperature, you can bash it into spreadability with a rolling pin.
Bangkok, Leela Punyaratabandhu
I'm now convinced that the underground society of egg shrinkers is much larger than I previously thought.
Munchies: Late-Night Meals from the World's Best Chefs, JJ Goode & Helen Hollyman
Watch enough Chef's Night Out episodes and you'll probably be struck by a few shocking things: chefs like tacos, chefs like pizza, and chefs drink a disturbing amount of fernet.
Flour, Joanne Chang
The Chinese say, "Fall down seven times, get up eight." And this is what I do. I eat my mistakes, figure out what I could do differently the next time, and try again.
Baking Chez Moi, Dorie Greenspan
That the French don't snack on choquettes with the same exuberance we show for popcorn and chips is either a sign of generations of good breeding or a degree of discipline too frightening to contemplate.
Queer: A Graphic History (graphic novel), Meg-John Barker & Julia Scheele
Queer theory, like all of us, has no fixed identity and multiple--contradictory--origin stories, rather than any one linear narrative. Like us it's plural rather than singular, in flux rather than static.
River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey
For the space of three of their shared breaths, the only sound was the buzz of night insects and the flap of Ruby's ears in the water. Then, just as Hero was preparing to draw a breath to apologize for asking a question they knew they shouldn't have, Houndstooth answered.
Aquaman: Maelstrom (graphic novel), Jeff Parker
REBEL: You are allowed a final statement, Mera of Xebel. It will be relayed to the Atlantean council. Perhaps a curse upon our realm? Or a loving goodbye to King Arthur?
MERA: Surrender. Now.
Food Anatomy, Julia Rothman
I am still very much a beginner cook, but I am not a beginner at eating.
Aquaman: Exiled (graphic novel), Cullen Bunn
MERA: I don't see the humor--
ARTHUR: I know. I should leave the wise-cracks to the professionals. The Flash makes it look so easy.
Dinner: Changing the Game, Melissa Clark
Engineer your cooking time so that it's one of the most satisfying and loveliest moments of the day.
Fables: Book Two (graphic novel), Mark Buckingham
BLUEBEARD: What happened to you since the exile? When did they tame you? Or was your formerly savage nature always counterfeit? A combination of bluster and deft public relations?
My Paris Kitchen, David Lebovitz
There are three essential knives to have in your kitchen: a long chef's knife, a small paring knife, and a serrated bread knife. If you don't have a good bread knife, you will get kicked out of France.
Nopalito, Gonzalo Guzman with Stacy Adimando
If you want to see a Mexican chef beam with pride, say something nice about the chef's salsa.
Six Seasons, Joshua McFadden with Martha Holmberg
And you don't need to use a knife and fork; hands are perfectly fine. I was just being polite.
Japan: The Cookbook, Nancy Singleton Hachisu
That fact alone gives one pause to consider the awesomeness of such a phenomenon: The preparation for the most basic daily food of Japan has not altered in over two thousand years.
Tower of Dawn, Sarah J Maas
She would have an adventure. For herself. This one time. She would see her homeland, and smell it and breathe it in. See it from high above, see it racing as fast as the wind.
King Solomon's Table, Joan Nathan
"In biblical Hebrew, there were no vowels, so words were more confusing," Meir told me, and added, "Anyway, if Boaz served his workers pita dipped in vinegar instead of something more substantial like hummus, they wouldn't have been very happy."
Birds of Prey: Trouble in Mind (graphic novel), Duane Swierczynski
DINAH: Is this going to be a thing with you from now on?
EV: Sue me. I like breaking stuff.
Birds of Prey: Your Kiss Might Kill (graphic novel), Duane Swierczynski
KATANA: Told you they had no souls.
BATGIRL: But they can be stopped. Batman figured it out.
STARLING: Of course Batman figured it out. Say, what's the Dark Knight doing this evening? Think he'd want to meet us for beers?
You're confused, and that's not good for this story. I'm a normal boy.
This isn't normal, David. There's only darkness, and you're talking into my ear.
Fairest: The Return of the Maharaja (graphic novel), Sean E. Williams
CROCODILE: It's been so long since I've had a good filling meal. No more elephants, no more camels...and little fish aren't nearly as filling as the inhabitants of the village were.
CHARMING: You're either really lonely, or you're the chattiest crocodile I've ever met.
Cardamom and Lime, Sarah Al-Hamad
Perhaps because alcohol is forbidden and mostly avoided in the Gulf, food is Big. It occupies a central position in local life and culture. It is a means of communication and a social marker, a peace-offering, a way of demonstrating largesse and hospitality to friends and family, a form of one-upmanship, a conversation starter, a boredom buster, and an arena for female competitiveness.
Fairest: Of Men and Mice (graphic novel), Marc Andreyko
And if there's one thing I hate more than trolls, it's indentured servitude.
Just ask my stepmother.
DICKORY: Interior monologuing again, are we?
So Much Blue, Percival Everett
While I was standing in the shower, while the hot water ran out, while I adjusted to the cold water, I imagined that I might cry, but I didn't. I washed my hair.
Hellblazer: The Gift (graphic novel), Mike Carey
ANGIE: She is gonna need you, though, if this works, I mean.
GEMMA: Big "if." Isn't it?
ANGIE: Fuck a dust-pan, girl. This is John we're talking about. If he's down in the ground where the dead men go--it's the dead men I feel sorry for.
The End of Eddy, Edouard Louis
(And I can't stop asking myself, years later, what the real meaning of complicity is, what the boundaries are that separate complicity from active participation, from innocence, from carelessness, from fear.)
Onions Etcetera, Kate Winslow and Guy Ambrosino
Yellow onions. They're our North Star. If we have yellow onions in the house, we can always find our way to dinner.
Dear Cyborgs, Eugene Lim
Now we're all Icarus. Cyborgs with our wings. An augmented reality. The Cassandra warnings forgotten. And it's always on, always simultaneous: the soaring and the panic, spasm and grace, flight and fall.
Burn it to the ground.
Burn it to the motherfucking ground.
Shifting Selves, Mia Marshall
I tilted my head and tried to soften my expression. Jonathan took a step backward.
Fairest: The Clamor for Glamour (graphic novel), Mark Buckingham
MEGHAN: The truth. I don't want to hear any fairy tales.
REYNARD: Meghan, my love, I'm afraid that's going to be unavoidable.
Aquaman: Throne of Atlantis (graphic novel), Geoff Johns
AQUAMAN: I don't see or hear anything. Had to be Atlantean long range weapons.
BATMAN: How did they know you were with me?
AQUAMAN: They were aiming for you, not me. When I wrote those war plans, I knew even before we met that you'd be a threat.
BATMAN: I'm flattered.
Lucky Boy, Shanthi Sekaran
There is a beast in all of us. Only the worst things can bring it ripping through the human veneer. On that cold linoleum afternoon, Soli's screams vibrated through her abdomen and up her chest, relentless and pure, and broke from her lips in a swarm.
Japanese Farm Food, Nancy Singleton Hachisu
Rice washed lackadaisically will lose a bit of spark.
Into the Drowning Deep, Mira Grant
Places like this, times like this, they were never meant to last. They were one frozen moment in a falling catastrophe, and their beauty was that they'd existed, even if it was only for a little while, even if they'd never been really real.
John Constantine, Hellblazer: Bloodlines (graphic novel), Garth Ennis
MARSTON: I had a feeling that serving your country wouldn't be motivation enough. In fact, I'm sure you're planning to go straight to the press as soon as you've stopped the killing, aren't you?
CONSTANTINE: Funny how "serving your country" always means "serving the poeple in charge of it"...
Tartine All Day, Elisabeth Pruett
Part of the fun and reward of recipe development is when you hit upon a method, ratio, trick, or particular combination of ingredients that makes all the failures worth it.
The Book of Joan, Lidia Yuknavitch
I've been thinking about how our desires and fears manifest in our bodies, and how our bodies, carrying these stories, resist the narratives our culture places on top of us, starting the moment we are born. It's our idiotic minds that overwrite everything. But the body has a point of view. It keeps its secrets. Makes its own stories. By any means necessary.
Simple Thai Food, Leela Punyaratabandhu
At the same time, many American cooks feel that cracking open a can of Thai curry paste is cheating. They worry that if they take shortcuts, an angry Thai grandmother will jump out from behind the nearest potted plant with a stun gun.
The Fearless Baker, Erin Jeanne McDowell
If the dough gets too cold, just let it soften for a moment at room temperature, or hit it with your rolling pin until it becomes malleable (this is also excellent for anger management purposes).
Bouchon Bakery, Thomas Keller
I've always believed that when you have a special, expensive ingredient--truffles, for instance, or foie gras--it's important to offer it in abundance so that people know what the fuss is about.
Sweet, Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh
It's one of life's great pleasures, we think, to know that, whatever else is going on in your day, you're only ever about 14 minutes away from a perfectly baked chocolate chip cookie.
Momofuku Milk Bar, Christina Tosi
By no means do you need to use a Robot Coupe in your home kitchen, but you definitely need a food processor of some sort for grinding down crumbs for pie crusts or grinding nut brittles into almost a powder. If you don't have one, you should get married so you can put one on your registry.
Aquaman: Death of a King (graphic novel), Geoff Johns
MERA: I came here because Arthur would've said to show you the courtesy, but I will not listen to threats. I have a dog to feed. I'm leaving.
POLICE OFFICER: You really want to add resisting arrest on top of everything else? You try to leave and you're going to make things worse.
MERA: Worse for who?
Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner, Ashley Christensen
Is the customer always right? Who can say. Most importantly at Poole's, the guest is always welcome.
Half Baked Harvest, Tieghan Gerard
Occasionally, there was lettuce on the table, too, but no one really touched that.
Fables: Book One (graphic novel), Bill Willingham
SNOW WHITE: All sorts of things never occur to you, dear. I suppose it would have been too much to expect to be born smart as well as privileged.
PRINCE CHARMING: Ouch.
Bravetart: Iconic American Desserts, Stella Parks
I'd like to go back in time and punch the guy who decided to give two entirely different systems of measurements the same name.
Aquaman: Sea of Storms (graphic novel), Jeff Parker
MARGA: And many say that just because she's your consort doesn't make her our queen.
MERA: Ouch.
MARGA: They wish Arthur would wear his crown.
ARTHUR: I wear the belt! The belt counts!
Dorie's Cookies, Dorie Greenspan
If you don't have time to bring your butter to room temperature, you can bash it into spreadability with a rolling pin.
Bangkok, Leela Punyaratabandhu
I'm now convinced that the underground society of egg shrinkers is much larger than I previously thought.
Munchies: Late-Night Meals from the World's Best Chefs, JJ Goode & Helen Hollyman
Watch enough Chef's Night Out episodes and you'll probably be struck by a few shocking things: chefs like tacos, chefs like pizza, and chefs drink a disturbing amount of fernet.
Flour, Joanne Chang
The Chinese say, "Fall down seven times, get up eight." And this is what I do. I eat my mistakes, figure out what I could do differently the next time, and try again.
Baking Chez Moi, Dorie Greenspan
That the French don't snack on choquettes with the same exuberance we show for popcorn and chips is either a sign of generations of good breeding or a degree of discipline too frightening to contemplate.
Queer: A Graphic History (graphic novel), Meg-John Barker & Julia Scheele
Queer theory, like all of us, has no fixed identity and multiple--contradictory--origin stories, rather than any one linear narrative. Like us it's plural rather than singular, in flux rather than static.
River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey
For the space of three of their shared breaths, the only sound was the buzz of night insects and the flap of Ruby's ears in the water. Then, just as Hero was preparing to draw a breath to apologize for asking a question they knew they shouldn't have, Houndstooth answered.
Aquaman: Maelstrom (graphic novel), Jeff Parker
REBEL: You are allowed a final statement, Mera of Xebel. It will be relayed to the Atlantean council. Perhaps a curse upon our realm? Or a loving goodbye to King Arthur?
MERA: Surrender. Now.
Food Anatomy, Julia Rothman
I am still very much a beginner cook, but I am not a beginner at eating.
Aquaman: Exiled (graphic novel), Cullen Bunn
MERA: I don't see the humor--
ARTHUR: I know. I should leave the wise-cracks to the professionals. The Flash makes it look so easy.
Dinner: Changing the Game, Melissa Clark
Engineer your cooking time so that it's one of the most satisfying and loveliest moments of the day.
Fables: Book Two (graphic novel), Mark Buckingham
BLUEBEARD: What happened to you since the exile? When did they tame you? Or was your formerly savage nature always counterfeit? A combination of bluster and deft public relations?
My Paris Kitchen, David Lebovitz
There are three essential knives to have in your kitchen: a long chef's knife, a small paring knife, and a serrated bread knife. If you don't have a good bread knife, you will get kicked out of France.
Nopalito, Gonzalo Guzman with Stacy Adimando
If you want to see a Mexican chef beam with pride, say something nice about the chef's salsa.
Six Seasons, Joshua McFadden with Martha Holmberg
And you don't need to use a knife and fork; hands are perfectly fine. I was just being polite.
Japan: The Cookbook, Nancy Singleton Hachisu
That fact alone gives one pause to consider the awesomeness of such a phenomenon: The preparation for the most basic daily food of Japan has not altered in over two thousand years.
Tower of Dawn, Sarah J Maas
She would have an adventure. For herself. This one time. She would see her homeland, and smell it and breathe it in. See it from high above, see it racing as fast as the wind.
King Solomon's Table, Joan Nathan
"In biblical Hebrew, there were no vowels, so words were more confusing," Meir told me, and added, "Anyway, if Boaz served his workers pita dipped in vinegar instead of something more substantial like hummus, they wouldn't have been very happy."
Birds of Prey: Trouble in Mind (graphic novel), Duane Swierczynski
DINAH: Is this going to be a thing with you from now on?
EV: Sue me. I like breaking stuff.
Birds of Prey: Your Kiss Might Kill (graphic novel), Duane Swierczynski
KATANA: Told you they had no souls.
BATGIRL: But they can be stopped. Batman figured it out.
STARLING: Of course Batman figured it out. Say, what's the Dark Knight doing this evening? Think he'd want to meet us for beers?