it was 'better' to be eating - it gave one something to do

The organization where Letty and Marcia worked regarded it as a duty to provide some kind of a retirement party for them, when the time came for them to give up working. Their status as ageing unskilled women did not entitle them to an evening party, but it was felt that a lunchtime gathering, leading only to more than usual drowsiness in the afternoon, would be entirely appropriate. The other advantage of a lunchtime party was that only medium Cyprus sherry need be provided, whereas the evening called for more exotic and expensive drinks, wines and even the occasional carefully concealed bottle of whisky or gin – 'the hard stuff', as Norman called it, in his bitterness at being denied access to it. Also at lunchtime sandwiches could be eaten, so that there was no need to have lunch and it was felt by some that at a time like this it was 'better' to be eating – it gave one something to do.

Barbara Pym

Quartet in Autumn (1977)

I wrote a little about why I liked this book a lot here.

the liver deliquesced

It was the porcelain spoons, five of them. Goldilocks waited, her unused hand tucked, in accordance with its training, into the small of her back, as if it were the rule that all non-serving parts of her body must be tidied deferentially from view. Perhaps it was.

Michael peered at the lumps, heat-edged with brown, in their drip of soup.

'What are they?' he asked.

'Foie gras, sautéed in oloroso sherry.'

'Mmm, foie gras,' he enthused, making a hash of the r.

He picked up one of the spoons and tipped it into his mouth. The liver deliquesced.

'Wow, that's fabulous!' He nodded with vigorous sincerity, and a gentle swirly drunken feeling lingered in the movement's echo. He closed his eyes to steady himself.

When he opened them, Goldilocks had gone.

He still held his phone in one hand, and the spoon in the other. The spoon went in his pocket.

Leo Benedictus

The Afterparty (2011)