There are the favored foods that he grew to abhor (Dover sole, Australian flapjacks, unripe plums, tinned sardines, fried tomatoes), the fear of swimming, his conviction (for a time) that he hated music, the "intimation of mortality" suggested by the taillights of cars receding down Park Avenue, the smell and touch of newspapers.

FORBES: A Truly Rare Book

The iron stove had a cast-iron warmer on the top, and in that warmer would be pork roasts and pork chops and fried chicken, two gallon pots of butter beans with salt pork, navy beans with ham bone, rattlesnake beans glistening with bacon fat, pans of chicken and dressing, macaroni and cheese, cornbread and cathead biscuits, mounds of mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, skillets of fried green tomatoes.

NPR: Excerpt: 'The Prince of Frogtown'

Two cooks sift and weigh the salvaged vegetables and whip up a selection of dishes - papaya soup, tomatoes and eggs, stir-fried cauliflower and cabbage.

BBC: Business

Dumont's house are expected to stay for a meal, often what she calls "Indian tacos, " made from deep-fried bread dough, hamburger, sour cream, raw onions, tomatoes and black olives.

WSJ: This North Dakota Mom, 77, Reared 69 Kids