" Ambrosial!" Apicius said to me yet again one afternoon as we chopped beets for the evening meal.
The knife revealed dark rings with every slice. There was something precious to me about black food- sinister yet seductive. Oh, how the beet juice would look in glass goblets, the torchlight glinting off the black surface! Apicius loved beet juice, and the rumors about its powers as an aphrodisiac were always a wonderful source of conversation with his guests. "

― Crystal King , Feast of Sorrow