Vivian Swift, on liver pâté

[zirconium]

Quatre épices -- four spices -- is the name for the six spices that give chopped liver its gourmet credentials: pepper, coriander, nutmeg, ginger, clove, and allspice. It's alchemy the way they combine to unleash liver's latent characteristics (I taste evergreen, and sea-spray) to offer a meaty, nostalgic adventure for the taste buds.

The flavors are so much more mischievous than anything I normally tolerate. With each bite, I taste velvet dresses I've never owned, poems I should know by heart, the life I might have had if I'd been born on the Ile-de-France instead of Montana.

-- Le Road Trip