Among the important ones of my life

"The Gastronomical Me" by MFK Fisher begins with a quotation by philosopher George Santayana, and it begins with her first remember taste sensation:

The first thing I remember tasting and then wanting to taste again is the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam.  I suppose I was about four. (3)

In a chapter recounting her early marriage spent in Paris, she recounts the first proper French restaurant she and her her husband visit on their one-month anniversary.   

The first meal we had was a shy stupid one, but even if we had never gone back and never learned gradually how to order fodd and wine, it would still be among the important ones of my life. (57)

The Santayana quotation:

To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.

Several chapters that I've read so far are titled "The measure of your powers." Each chapter title also includes a date: 1912, 1929-1930 (Paris)

Some other sentences that I admire:

Instead, I said that my university work took all of my time, and without her knowing it I learned much more from her, perhaps, than she could ever have told me.  I learned about omelets and salads and roasts of meat, as well as sauces both natural and concocted and a few human foibles, both despicable and fine. (81)

and.

We grew to know, but always humbly, what wines of Burgundy and which years were regal, and how to suit the vintage to the hour. (Much of what I learned then I've forgotten. I feel it is a pity, but perhpas like any fish I shall remember how to swim if I am thrown back in the water before it is too late. (89)

and, as a last paragraph of an essay/chapter:

We toasted many things, and at first the guests and some of the old judges and officers busied themselves being important. But gradually, over the measured progress of the courses and the impressive changing beauty of the wines, snobberies and even politics dwindled in our hearts, and the wit and the laughing awareness that is France made all of us alive. (95)