Fusion Quotes

“What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.”
― Albert Einstein

“Il n'y a pas d'amour dans la liberté individuelle, dans l'indépendance, c'est tout simplement un mensonge, et l'un des plus grossiers qui puisse se concevoir; il n'y a d'amour que dans le désir d'anéantissement, de fusion, de disparition individuelle, dans une sorte comme on disait autrefois de sentiment océanique, dans quelque chose qui de toute façon était, au moins dans un futur proche, condamné.”
― Michel Houellebecq, The Possibility of an Island

“he ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles said that two forces – love and hate – govern the universe. Love fuses things together. Hate splits them apart. In a foundation myth of ancient Egypt, the god Osiris was killed by his brother Set, and his body cut into many pieces and scattered across Egypt. His wife collected all of the dismembered parts together and then, with the help of Anubis, the god of embalming and funerary rites, and Thoth, the god of magic, she restored Osiris’s body to life. This is a creation myth based on fission – the god is torn apart – followed by fusion – the god is reassembled. Dr. Frankenstein, the modern Thoth, the scientific Thoth, fused body parts of dead criminals together then animated the creature. Human society is full of fusion forces that bring people together, and fission forces that break them apart. Fusion forces unite. Fission forces divide. We now live in a Fission Phase, with extreme polarization evident everywhere. There’s no sign of any Fusion Phase coming to the rescue any time soon.”
― Peter Brennan, Fusions Versus Fissions: Are You a Joiner or a Splitter?

“You did your best to be a good student. You chopped and cooked and measured and served according to her wishes. But sometimes you wondered if the stall could stand to be upgraded with modern comfort food. With pandan ensaymada instead of the increasingly popular but also growingly common ube, the fresh bread from the oven and the cheese still melting, sweetly fragrant from the infusion of those steeped leaves and as simple as a summer morning. Or chopped watermelons in bulalo soup to replace tomatoes, for that extra tang. Or even pork adobo, but with chili and sweet pineapples. You had so many ideas.”
― Rin Chupeco, Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Food & Love

“Before long our entire table was covered in food: an earthenware ramekin of pearly-pink prawns bathed in garlic butter; translucent, paper-thin slices of cured ham fanned out on the plate; tortilla espanola with nuggets of potato and sweet onion; candy-stripe beets studded with goat cheese and almond slivers; slow-cooked short ribs almost silky in their tenderness; thick chorizo stew.”
― Kirstin Chen, Soy Sauce for Beginners

“It's basty!"
"There's definitely a soup underneath the crust. I see carrots. Gingko nuts. Mushrooms. And...
Shark fin! Simmered until it's falling apart!"
Aah! It's all too much! I-I don't care if I burn my mouth...
I want to dive in right now!
Mm! Mmmm!
UWAAAAH!
"Incredible! The shark fin melts into a soft wave of warm umami goodness on the tongue...
...with the crispy piecrust providing a delectably crunchy contrast!"
"Mmm... this piecrust shows all the signs of the swordsmanship he stole from Eishi Tsukasa too."
Instead of melting warm butter to mix into the flour, he grated cold butter into granules and blended them...
... to form small lumps that then became airy layers during the baking, making the crust crispier and lighter. A light, airy crust like that soaks up the broth, making it the perfect complement to this dish!
"Judge Ohizumi, what's that "basty" thing you were talking about?"
"It's a dish in a certain style of cooking that's preserved for centuries in Nagasaki- Shippoku cuisine."
"Shippoku cuisine?"
Centuries ago, when Japan was still closed off from the rest of the world, only the island of Dejima in Nagasaki was permitted to trade with the West. There, a new style of cooking that fused Japanese, Chinese and Western foods was born- Shippoku cuisine! One of its signature dishes is Basty, which is a soup covered with a lattice piecrust.
*It's widely assumed that Basty originated from the Portuguese word "Pasta."*
"Shippoku cuisine is already a hybrid of many vastly different cooking styles, making it a perfect choice for this theme!"
"The lattice piecrust is French. Under it is a wonderfully savory Chinese shark fin soup. And the soup's rich chicken broth and the vegetables in it have all been thoroughly infused with powerfully aromatic spices...
... using distinctively Indian spice blends and techniques!"
"Hm? Wait a minute. There's more than just shark fin and vegetables in this soup.
This looks just like an Italian ravioli! I wonder what's in it?
?!"
"Holy crap, look at it stretch!"
"What is that?! Mozzarella?! A mochi pouch?!"
"Nope! Neither! That's Dondurma. Or as some people call it...
... Turkish ice cream.
A major ingredient in Dondurma is salep, a flour made from the root of certain orchids. It gives the dish a thick, sticky texture.
The moist chewiness of ravioli pasta melds together with the sticky gumminess of the Dondurma...
... making for an addictively thick and chewy texture!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 35 [Shokugeki no Souma 35]

“At the Chinese restaurant, Nami Emo would reserve a room with a big table and a gigantic glass lazy Susan on which turned small porcelain pitchers of vinegar and soy sauce with a marble button to ring for service. We'd order decadent jjajangmyeon noodles, dumpling after dumpling served in rich broth, tangsuyuk pork with mushrooms and peppers, and yusanseul, gelatinous sea cucumber with squid, shrimp, and zucchini.”
― Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart

“Guava-stuffed chicken with caramelized mango and a spicy mango mojito sauce. Alim had ruined mango for her, but every time Feyi remembered how shocked and open his face looked with desire, she wasn't sure she minded. There was a lemongrass-and-pineapple-glazed pork belly with Zanzibari spiced octopus, grilled jerk watermelon with couscous and a basil oil, and finally, a banana cream parfait with coconut shortbread alongside broiled pineapple with macadamia toffee, drizzled with rum caramel.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

“The mochi gradually began to take on color and swell out. When their skin seared with brown grill marks started to split open, revealing glimpses of their sparkling white insides, Rika took them out of the toaster. She perched a generous wedge of butter on top of each, and prepared the sugared soy sauce in a small dish. Watching as the molten butter flowed gently over both the burnished surface and the soft white interior, her stomach rumbled. Though she knew it was bad manners to eat standing up, she stuffed one of the mochi in her mouth right there at the counter.
The heady aroma that rose up through her nose, the crispiness of the skin as it broke open beneath her teeth, the silkiness of the gooey insides that spread themselves flat across every bit of flesh in her mouth and refused to let go... The hot butter fused the sugar and soy sauce together, clinging to the sweet, soft, shapeless mass in her mouth, swimming around its outside as though to ascertain its contours. The grease of the butter melded with the grit of the sugar and the pungent soy sauce. By the time she'd finished chewing, the roots of her teeth were trembling pleasurably.”
― Asako Yuzuki, Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder

“She looked up to see a knob of canary-yellow butter being carried towards her in a glass-lidded container.
'All this butter just for me, when there's a national shortage...'
Hearing Rika mumbling these words, the maitre d' smiled and lifted the lid of the dish.
'This butter had been flown in especially from overseas. Pleas help yourself to as much as you'd like.'
Confronted with an overwhelming selection of different kinds of bread on the trolley, Rika chose the simplest option she could see--- a piece of baguette. Once again, she thought that she should have come with Reiko. Reiko would have told her which to choose. Rika spread a thick layer of butter on the bread. The butter, of a firmness that would break apart slowly on the tongue, went sinking into the crumb of the baguette. That alone was enough to make Rika glad she'd come.
The next course to be served was a chilled dish of avocado and snow crab stacked delicately like layer cake, topped with a generous helping of caviar. The acidity of the pomegranate seeds that exploded juicily in her mouth accentuated the creamy richness of the avocado and the sweetness of the crab flesh. Their unabashed scarlet hue brought the color palette of the whole plate to life. Chased by the champagne, the taste of the crab and the caviar expanded like light suffusing her mouth.”
― Asako Yuzuki, Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder

“The grilled foie gras brought out next was accompanied by dried persimmons sautéed in butter. The saltiness of the butter drew out the persimmons' clinging, pervasive flavor. So tenaciously umami-rich was their taste, it was almost impossible to believe this was fruit that had once grown on a tree. It seemed more like a sweet flaky meat-- no less so than the foie gras, in fact, which was so exquisitely tender that it broke apart on the tongue, oozing thick blood-scented liquid. Though she hadn't planned it so, the dish made a perfect match with the smoky notes of the red wine.”
― Asako Yuzuki, Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder

“After lunch, Pindar would go in to the university and meet with his students. When his colleagues asked him how his book was going, he tried to seem jolly. "Oh, you know. It's just dreams of eating. Like any other cookbook, only older," he would laugh. "Dabbling in Babylonian stewpots." But he loved his old recipes. In fact, he loved all cookbooks, old or new, perhaps because so few other things in life were such unabashed invitations to delight. When, as a young man, he had invented a sandwich made of peanut butter, bacon, and mango chutney, he thought he might die of pleasure.”
― Grace Dane Mazur, The Garden Party: A Novel

“Today, Chefs, I have prepared for you a coconut-curry chicken, served on a naan waffle. And while the flavor profile is a little more on the exotic side, I think even exotic food should be comfort food. To that end, you'll see that you also have a side of warmed sweet and slightly spicy plum chutney. I'll ask you to pour that over the dish, as you would maple syrup over the traditional Southern version of chicken and waffles.”
― Bethany Turner, Hadley Beckett's Next Dish

“We even made it to the holy mecca of Brooklyn food fanaticism: Smorgasburg, a collection of food vendors that battle it out for the most outrageously delicious, ridiculously inventive food. We duly ate our heads off, sampling panko-crusted chicken sandwiches topped with pickled cucumbers and daikon, brown butter cookies doused in flies of sea salt, and the coup d'état- gigantic, billowy doughnuts from a Bed-Stuy bakery called Dough, one sweetly flavored with hibiscus, the other a savory, roasted café au last varietal.”
― Amy Thomas, Brooklyn in Love: A Delicious Memoir of Food, Family, and Finding Yourself

“Former pastry chef Sam Mason opened Oddfellows in Williamsburg with two business partners in 2013 and has since developed upwards of two hundred ice cream flavors. Many aren't for the faint of heart: chorizo caramel swirl, prosciutto mellon, and butter, to name a few. Good thing there are saner options in the mix like peanut butter & jelly, s'mores, and English toffee.
A retro scoop shop off Bowery, Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream has been bringing fanciful flavors to mature palettes since opening in 2014. Creator Nicholas Morgenstern, who hails from the restaurant world, makes small batches of elevated offerings such as strawberry pistachio pesto, lemon espresso, and Vietnamese coffee.
Ice & Vice hails from the Brooklyn Night Bazaar in Greenpoint, and owners Paul Kim and Ken Lo brought it to the Lower East Side in 2015. Another shop devoted to quality small batches, along with weird and wacky flavors, you'll find innovations like Farmer Boy, black currant ice cream with goat milk and buckwheat streusel, and Movie Night, buttered popcorn-flavored ice cream with toasted raisins and chocolate chips.”
― Amy Thomas, Brooklyn in Love: A Delicious Memoir of Food, Family, and Finding Yourself

“Once, when I was a kid, I had impressed my mother, intuitively dipping a whole raw pepper into ssamjang paste at a barbecue restaurant in Seoul. The bitterness and spice of the vegetable perfectly married with the savory, salty taste of the sauce, itself made from fermented peppers and soybeans. It was a poetic combination, to reunite something in its raw form with its twice-dead cousin. "This is a very old taste," my mother had said.”
― Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart

“I got up from the table and stepped to the cabinet above Mom's mixer, absently brushing off a layer of dust as I reached up. I found the jar I needed, musing that it was probably years old and tasteless---but still worth a try.
"What are you doing?"
"Hang on a sec." I clenched the jar in my fist and shook the spice into my hand, pinching a bit across his lasagna.
"What's that?"
"Trust me, it's just what it needs---a touch of earth and sweet to temper the tomato's bite. With fresh tomatoes you need less as summer approaches and they develop their own sugars. Taste it."
He took a bite. "It's fantastic. What'd you add?"
"Cinnamon." He didn't recognize it?
"Amazing. I'll have to tell Mary."
"Tell her a touch of milk tempers the acidity as well."
"Interesting.”
― Katherine Reay, Lizzy and Jane

“I present to you ube chocolate chip cookies two ways: one with semisweet chips and the other with white chocolate chips. Tell me which you prefer. I'm honestly a little torn."
They took turns sampling my offering, giving each cookie their undivided attention. Elena said, "If you're going to serve the cookies as is, I'd say the semisweet gets my vote. It plays well with the earthiness of the ube, but is still a chocolate chip cookie. The white chocolate is a bit too sweet for me."
Adeena, whose capacity for sugar was probably some kind of Guinness World Record, said, "I disagree about the white chocolate being too sweet. It's so good! But it lacks oomph, you know? If you're playing with the classics, why not add macadamia nuts? Then it could be your take on white chocolate macadamia cookies. Which are my favorite cookies, FYI," she said to Elena.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Homicide and Halo-Halo

“I set out a loaf of zucchini-pandan bread, the green coloring from the extract adding an interesting tinge to the crumb. The grassy, floral taste complemented the neutral flavor of the zucchini well, and the turbinado sugar I'd sprinkled on top added a delicious crunch.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Homicide and Halo-Halo

“But my own style, I'd say, is more homestyle, with Jewish influences? Not kosher cooking; that's a different thing. I'm inspired by traditional Jewish cuisine."
Paper rustled on the other end. "Right, the matzah ball ramen you cooked in your video looked fantastic. We were all drooling in the room!"
I perked up. Forgot that I was naked. Forgot that lately I was a walking disaster. "That's one of my go-tos and will definitely be on my future menu. I've been experimenting lately with putting a spin on kugels..."
As I chattered on, I could practically see my grandma shaking her head at me. Grandma Ruth had cooked up a storm for every Passover, Yom Kippur, and Chanukah, piling her table till it groaned with challah rolls, beef brisket in a ketchup-based sauce, and tomato and cucumber salad so fresh and herby and acidic it could make you feel like summer in the middle of winter.”
― Amanda Elliot, Sadie on a Plate

“Knives sliced cleanly through the salmon, pink flesh flaking on either side, the crust giving way with a satisfying crunch. Lenore and Maz were eating, too, but I kept my eyes fixed on Luke's fork. He tried a bite of the salmon plain first, chewing thoughtfully, then swept up some of my rice porridge with the seaweed-pickled vegetables, then returned for a bite of everything together, pink salmon and white porridge and pops of green and red all entering his parted lips.
He closed his eyes as he tasted my food. He didn't open them again until he swallowed. "The salmon is perfect," he said. "Flaky and tender, with just the right amount of smoke, and the crunch of that crust is just..." He paused, those bottomless eyes on mine. The tip of his tongue darted over his lower lip. "Incredible."
I didn't mean to smile, just nod appreciatively at any praise, but I felt it curl over my lips anyway. "Thank you."
"I agree," said Lenore. "The salmon is something quite special. Is the crust rice alone?"
"No," I said. "It's ground rice with some panko and a little nori."
She nodded with approval. "And these seaweed-pickled vegetables are stellar. Bright and tangy, a lovely pop of acid against the richness of the salmon and the porridge.”
― Amanda Elliot, Sadie on a Plate

“I stopped in front of my new building, a thrill of pride running through me at the sight. The sight was bright and clear and elegant: Wander. Because my people had wandered all around the world for thousands of years of the Diaspora, picking up local culinary traditions and incorporating them into our own. Even if my menu had taken the incorporation in a more daring direction----some of the dishes I was most excited about were the brisket ramen and the kimchi chopped liver, a play on my finale appetizer but with Korean influences. Luke had helped me with that. It was the one dish that sat on both of our menus.”
― Amanda Elliot, Sadie on a Plate

“I finally came up with a cake base that seemed right and debated whether the coconut should go in the cake or be sprinkled on top. Hmm, probably better to test both and see. Cupcake trays filled and in the oven, it was now time to come up with the right frosting. I decided to go with cream cheese, both to mimic the cheese slices that usually top the bibingka and because cream cheese frosting was the best frosting. Don't @ me.
It was delicious but tasted like a regular cream cheese frosting. It needed some oomph, something that let people know it was a bibingka cupcake. As I analyzed my grandmother's bibingka, layer by layer, I realized what was missing: the salted duck eggs. I was a huge fan of the sweet and salty combination and knew if I used the salted duck eggs sparingly, I'd have a winning combination on my hands.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Blackmail and Bibingka

“Don’t panic. It’s normal to get lost every once in a while. Caught up in a whirlwind, sometimes winds too get lost.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya, Safa Tempo: Poems New & Selected

“While nuclear fusion is great achievement, it is important that we look into the negative aspects of it. The development of nuclear energy in the past was associated with the workers developing unusual cancers and dying premature deaths. My question is: What illnesses and diseases are these nuclear fusion workers developing and what are they dying from?”
― Steven Magee

“I reached into my tote bag and pulled out one of our huge carryout boxes. "Matcha mamon! Mamon isn't too different from Japanese castella, and I figured adding matcha would give it a little extra flavor and make it perfect for a Japanese restaurant. I also made matcha white chocolate chip cookies and strawberry-matcha mochi donuts, plus a basic parfait idea that you can adapt seasonally.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Murder and Mamon

“As per your request, all the chocolate we have on offer."
There were pandan cheesecake brownies, red bean brownies, ube chocolate chip cookies, ube Oreo mochi Rice Krispie treats, brown butter chai chocolate chip cookies, Mexican hot chocolate cookies, and a champorado parfait, the last of which was still in the experimental phase. I didn't usually make so many chocolate offerings in one day, but I guess subconsciously I felt the need for chocolaty comfort as much as Marcus did.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Murder and Mamon

“A buffet with a mix of Indian and Italian food beckons. It's like a fever dream from the bonkers corners of my recipe-obsessed mind--- samosas stuffed with zucchini blossoms and creamy ricotta; chapatis with tomato and mint chutneys made with local produce; artichoke pakoras topped with cilantro and ginger; local truffle panipuris, and even more truffles on the creamy turmeric lentils. There's a chef slicing a porchetta that's been rolled up with cardamom, cumin, black pepper, amchur, and coriander. The air is spiced and herbaceous, and I dive in the moment I see others partaking.”
― Ali Rosen, Recipe for Second Chances

“For iron and pep, I wanted to make a cold lentil salad with a zingy orange-ginger vinaigrette, handfuls of chopped herbs, and slices of white peach. (The purple-green Puy lentils, more common than the orange ones in France, just seemed too dark for a summer salad.) After unpacking half the kitchen while standing, against my better judgement, on a kitchen chair, I ended up not with orange lentils, but with a bag of yellow split peas. That would have to do.
The split peas had been hiding up there for a while--- I'm pretty sure I bought them after a trip to Puglia, where we were served warm split-pea puree drizzled with wonderful glass-green olive oil and a grind of fresh pepper. Still hankering after a cold salad, I tried cooking the dried peas al dente, as I would the lentils, but a half hour later, where the lentils would have been perfect, the split peas were a chalky, starchy mess. I decided to boil on past defeat and transform my salad into the silky puree I'd eaten with such gusto in Italy.
When the peas were sweet and tender and the liquid almost absorbed, I got out the power tools. I'm deeply attached to my hand blender--- the dainty equivalent of a serial killer's obsession with chain saws. The orange-ginger vinaigrette was already made, so I dumped it in. The recipe's necessary dose of olive oil would have some lively company.
The result was a warm, golden puree with just enough citrus to deviate from the classic. I toasted some pain Poilâne, slathered the bread with the puree, and chopped some dill. My tartines were still lacking a bit of sunshine, so I placed a slice of white peach on top.”
― Elizabeth Bard, Picnic in Provence: A Memoir with Recipes

“Alexander may or may not have peeked out of the kitchen office to make sure Eden actually ate the rest of her Asian fusion abomination. Her delicious Asian fusion abomination.
As much as it bothers him to admit, Alexander has never tasted anything so amazing before. The sauce was tangy, notes of lime coming to the forefront without being overpowering.
The mini pita shells she'd used had been warmed on the skillet, offering a lovely crunchy texture to offset the softness of the Pad Thai.”
― Katrina Kwan, Knives, Seasoning, & A Dash of Love