Asking for a martini today is merely a socially acceptable way of asking for a bottle of gin

You have to work hard to get away from the fact that asking for a martini today is merely a socially acceptable way of asking for a bottle of gin - hold the brown paper bag - and could it come direct from the freezer, rather than its hiding place in the corner of the wardrobe, please? And drinking virtually neat gin is an act that tends to be frowned upon otherwise in most middle-class circles. 

V. Moore, How to drink (2009), 284

We have a very big sharp knife

The Poire William tasted so precisely of the fruit it was made from you could almost feel the sweetness and textured scrape of the coarse pear flesh dragging across your tongue, so that it was a surprise to find only liquid in your mouth. The Goutte de Reine Claude Doree Passerillee (greengage) also yielded an incredible clarity of flavour. 'We take all the stones out of the fruit by hand,' explained the producer when I commented on this. 'All 300,000 of them. We do everything by hand so as to avoid bitter or dirty tastes. The quince are the toughest to deal with because they are very hard, but we have a very big sharp knife.'

V. Moore, How to drink (2009), 200

No, sir, those are the wrong type of glasses

Nonetheless I reserve great respect for sticklers like the head waiter at the Taj Mahal in Mumbai, who refused to let standards slip during the terrorist siege in November 2008. As one guest-hostage who had been holed up in the restaurant while explosions shook the building later reported. 'Come 5 a.m. we were confident the police were going to get us out, so I marched over to the bar and found a bottle of vintage Cristal, opened it and began pouring. Then the head waiter came rushing across and said, "No, no, you can't do that!" And I said, "Well, we're going to!" and he said, "No, sir, those are the wrong type of glasses." ' Quite so.

V. Moore, How to drink (2009), 48