Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.

As you move through this life...you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you.

At the end of a dinner at my house, my kitchen sink is filled with dishes and there's nothing pretty about the garbage.

In college, I think I probably positioned myself as an aspiring writer, meaning I dressed sort of extravagantly and adopted all the semi-Byronic affectations, as if I were writing, although I wasn't actually doing any writing.

I often look ridiculous in Japan. There's really no way to eat in Japan, particularly kaiseki in a traditional ryokan, without offending the Japanese horribly. Every gesture, every movement is just so atrociously wrong, and the more I try, the more hilarious it is.

I think of [street food] as the antidote to fast food; it's the clear alternative to the king, the clown and the colonel.

I'm at my most productive before I even have my first cup of coffee. I only get slower and stupider as the day progresses.