"The captain asks if we would like cheese or dessert. Why, both, we answer together, surprised that there might be an alternative. I’m with Brillat-Savarin, who wrote that ‘a dinner that ends without cheese is like a beautiful woman with one eye.’

"After setting new plates, the captain and a server in a white jacket appear bearing two large cheese trays between them. There are more than a dozen varieties on each tray, of cow and goat cheeses, respectively, and the captain invites us to choose four apiece."

- A Meal Observed, pp. 147, 153