Saturday, December 4, 2010

ST. ARBUCKS - PATRON SAINT OF COFFEE


Thanks to Ann V.

UPDATE: Chris said...

Collect of the day:

Oh God, who hast made the coffee bean and infused it with caffeine for our enjoyment; like Thy blessed saint Arbucks vouchsafe to keep us awake to Thy beauty, infuse us with the riches of the cream of Thy heart, and at the end bring us to Thy heavenly café, where Thou livest and reignest with your Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Thank you, Chris. The collect is perfect.

59 comments:

  1. Lapin, your link made my mouth water. Popeye's chicken may be a sin against one's own body, but it is tasty. Every now and then, I must have my Popeye's chicken fix. The biscuits are sinful, too, but yummy. The coleslaw may be a tad healthier, although full of mayo. Oh, but it's good!

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  2. Tobias, you're incorrigible! I have a vision of rotten tomatoes flying your way.

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  3. "oh NOOOOOOOOOO"

    ... was my reaction. And that's before I saw Tobias's effort!!! GROOAANNNNNNN...

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  4. Cathy just said it all.

    Leave it to Tobias to add the final blow.

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  5. Starbucks do not sell coffee, weak as dishwater. They had to close down most of their shops in Australia just leaving those in tourist areas where Americans, who do not appreciate good coffee, might buy.

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  6. Brian R, I'm not a fan of Starbucks. We have the franchise near us, but I never go there. We have a few locally-owned coffee shops which serve the good stuff.

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  7. Collect of the day:

    Oh God, who hast made the coffee bean and infused it with caffeine for our enjoyment; like Thy blessed saint Arbucks vouchsafe to keep us awake to Thy beauty, infuse us with the riches of the cream of Thy heart, and at the end bring us to Thy heavenly café, where Thou livest and reignest with your Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

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  8. Chris, what a wonderful collect! Do you think Gawd is going to get us for this?

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  9. Never thought to write an icon of the good saint Arbuck, but then I'm a Peet's fan. I wonder if St. Pete enjoys a mug while waiting at the pearly gates.

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  10. Amelia, St Pete needs the caffeine to keep him awake to guard the gate.

    On the other hand, perhaps there is no sleep or sleepiness in heaven.

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  11. Thank you Chris :-) There may well be no sleepiness in heaven but perhaps one might enjoy a good strong coffee anyway? ... For the sake of??

    I wonder if there's a rota as to who guards Heaven's gate. Maybe St Peter goes and has a beer sometimes with friends while someone else does the duties? ...

    I am so, so pleased Starbuck's pretty much had to close down in Oz. Would that one could say the same about McDonald's :-(

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  12. "Do you think Gawd is going to get us for this?"

    Not until Gawd has had a full caf triple chocolate latte with whipped cream and a double thunderbolt espresso chaser.

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  13. Cathy, Tom sold our McDonald's stock because their hamburgers were so bad. Since then, the stock has gone up in price quite a bit, but Tom showed 'em.

    Bex, thanks. I was a little worried there.

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  14. Mimi, I am a Starbucks fan (pauses to listen to boos) and I think that Gawd made coffee for our enjoyment and if there hadn't been a Starbucks...er...St. Arbucks, God would have created one.

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  15. Chris, your theological reasoning is impeccable and your collect is brilliant. I am printing out a copy to post in my kitchen where I grind my daily beans (Pikes Place, usually, though I am looking forward to this year's Christmas Blend).

    Anglican tradition recognizes both implicitly and explicitly that divine favor rests upon, and is mediated by, St. Arbucks. Besides the well-known fact that "coffee hour" is our fourth Sacrament, there is monumental evidence in the form of the shrine to the saint which is built into the wall at the entrance to Canterbury Cathedral.

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  16. Chris and Mary Clara, what can I say? Chacun à son goût!

    Though we may disagree, I am honored beyond what I can say to have such distinguished writers of prayers and of theological commentary visit my humble blog.

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  17. I do know English people who say that while they personally dislike Starbucks coffee and the company they are very grateful it came to the UK because it brought other, better companies and a coffee culture in its wake. One fellow says before Starbucks came Britain just had dingy little cafes where all you could get were not very nice cups of tea and things like baked beans on toast with chips. So, he thinks it's all to the good.

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  18. Mimi, the little-known truth about our saint is that he predates the Starbucks brand, which is named after him rather than the other way round. It is not the Starbucks brand as such that is specially blessed by Our Lord but coffee itself, for the reason emphasized in Chris's collect, namely its power to help keep us alert to the signs and manifestations of the divine nature. While the Starbucks firm clearly drew its inspiration from the life and example of the Saint, the company and its merchandise are not themselves to be venerated. The firm simply deserves credit for having stimulated broader public awareness of the spiritual potential of the sacred bean and the importance of better roasting and brewing methods in realizing that potential. When I think of what passed for "coffee" in my younger days I am thankful to Starbucks and a few other big companies who have raised the standard so that now we have the option of being coffee snobs and rejecting Starbucks products in favor of the offerings at a local cafe! When I can get to that part of town, I also buy freshly roasted beans at a local hole-in-the-wall shop and enjoy them very much.

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  19. Mary Clara, you may want to gather the brilliant ideas you've expressed here and expand them into a paper for a theological journal.

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  20. I am so grateful for the kind words. I was well-educated at the Roman seminary I attended. I suspect that my use of the ancient "Thy/Thou/Thine" forms is defective, but I'm sure that I shall be forgiven for that.

    As for why I like Starbucks—I have had Starbucks in New York, Marblehead, London, Singapore, and Shanghai (among other places). I know exactly what I'll get when I go in and order a venti mocha. It may not be perfect, but I get no surprises.

    I make lovely café con leche at home in the morning for myself and HWMBO (He who must be obeyed, my spouse) in an espresso pot, and enjoy coffee whenever and wherever I find it.

    English coffee USED to be insipid instant in tepid water, served in caffs which preferred to serve you tea, stewed. Now you can get relatively good coffee everywhere here, and the only place I ever have to endure insipid instant is at my church's coffee hour.

    I would not miss your blog for the world, Grandmère Mimi. I just wish I had heeded MadPriest's pleas and visited earlier.

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  21. Chris, thank YOU. I didn't attend a Roman seminary, but I did have 16 years of Roman education through university, and I consider that I was well-taught, too.

    In New Orleans, we always had good coffee. Café du Monde set the bar high, and the finest restaurant down to the humblest diner had to serve good coffee to stay in business.

    I'm thankful to both Starbucks and McDonald's for their policies to let anyone off the street use their generally-clean facilities, even those who are not customers. I remember when Doorman-Priest gave a group of us a walking tour of the City Centre in Leeds, and I began to be in desperate need of a loo. We searched and searched for a public toilet, but there was none to be found. Then, I spotted a McDonald's, and I knew I was saved. :-)

    Now I drink tea. Imagine! A native New Orleanian who prefers tea!

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  22. I used to drink New Orleans coffee years ago, with chicory. It was quite good.

    I was raised on instant, so almost any ground coffee is better.

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  23. Baked beans and egg on toast, Cathy.

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  24. Among the blogs like Wounded Bird and OCICBW linked by Saintly Ramblings is a quite different site which covers only caffs specializing in food of this type (great scans). Very good stuff it can be, too.

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  25. At an early age, around 8 or 9, we were served a cup of café-au-lait avec la chicorée with breadfast.

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  26. That would be "breakfast", although we did have French bread with our breakfast.

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  27. Lapin, I was served breakfasts like that at Haley's Hotel in Leeds, which were, indeed, quite good, though I finally told the staff to hold the beans and black pudding, and they remembered and did so.

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  28. Lapin, I swear to you this fellow said chips, though perhaps he was just getting wildly carried away :-)

    I think a good greasy spoon is an excellent thing, but I also think being able to lay your hands on a good coffee is essential to life and a sign of a civilised society.

    Re black pudding, I adore black pudding. My favourite breakfast now is a poached runny egg on top of a round of fried black pudding of similar circumferance, on toast smeared liberally with chilli ketchup.

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  29. Chips as well, yes, Cathy. I'm from Bury, home of the British black pudding, and I still miss it over here.

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  30. Oh Lapin, please tell me you can get black pudding in the US!!!! :-O

    I didn't know you was from the Lancashire region. I'd love to spend more time up in the north and to do that famous walk over the Pennines. I'm trying to persuade a friend of mine who is from Leeds but so far she's not biting.

    I order black pudding from a company in Scotland which also supplies venison, haggis, grouse, wild duck and other excellent stuff. I love the Scots! You may not approve of their black pudding though? ...

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  31. In my part of the Bronx what is called an "Irish Breakfast" is still available at diners -- and it is not far off from the English version, though I don't think it includes beans, as I recollect, but does have the pudding.

    However, as a native born American, I have to rise in defense of our own native pudding, at least in the area in which I grew up, which goes by the name Scrapple. Sliced and fried up crispy on the outside and soft within, just the thing with eggs over easy and a bit of maple syrup. And it comes from the English-named Lancaster and York (Pennsylvania) to the north of my home town. When I visit Baltimore, it is a must to stop in the delightful greasy spoon "The Sip and Bite" on Boston Street in the Canton district, for the breakfast fry-up with scrapple.

    Scrapple is one of those things the ingredients of which are best left to imagination, but I think the corn meal is part of what gives it such a "comfort food" rating.

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  32. There's a small British Shoppe here in town that stocks a "black pudding" made in San Francisco. Immediate warning bells! Rightly so, it turns out - the white cubes in the pudding - fat, back where I come from, are TOFU in the SF variety. That's the kind of thing that gets you lynched on Bury Market.

    I've had scrapple, Tobias, and enjoyed it.

    Some British have this odd thing about British Heinz baked beans being superior to the US variety. Bloody silly, but the UK beans are a staple at the shop. As is Spotted Dick.

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  33. Scrapple sounds delicious, though I have no idea how close it is to black pudding? ... Maple syrup, yum.

    Lapin, tofu!!! No no no no. In fact, the Scottish company I referred to earlier sells black pudding with fat or without and I was on the point of asking your advice as to which you think is better.

    As for baked beans, without wanting to be contentious, I've always suspected cooked from fresh to be best? ...

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  34. Cathy knows why I'm not in the conversation about black pudding. Lapin, too, probably. Cathy and I agreed to disagree while we were in Scotland.

    I looked up the ingredients of scrapple, and it sounds like a dish I could like. But it's quite different from black pudding, for which I don't think I could ever acquire a taste.

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  35. Goodness, we've strayed far from St. Arbucks.

    When I lived in the Bronx, I had a post office box at Madison Square Station on 23rd St, and I would go down there on Saturday to empty the box. There was an Irish bar around the corner on Third Av. that had the Irish breakfast, which (of course) included black pudding, and I'd drop by on Saturdays to have breakfast and read my mail. Oh geez, when I found out what was in black pudding, I never ate it again.

    Your mileage may vary, of course.

    I have now realised that the Irish or Full English breakfast is so full of fat that I should never eat it again. It was designed to give those who were working in the fields enough calories, fat, and energy to keep going until lunch or even tea. As I haven't worked in a field, ever, nor done anything that would require so many calories, I just forego it. This does not mean that those who never gain an ounce, whatever they eat, should forego it, of course.

    Toast and a cup of café au lait is my breakfast, and it gives me enough calories to last until lunch and fuel my computer exploits during the morning.

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  36. To jump in on the digression: I like black pudding and a full English breakfast. That way I can sight-see and not have to eat lunch. That usually means a very early supper though (or tea and no supper).

    I was introduced to black pudding as a child because my grandfather liked it on Christmas Eve and I liked it even knowing what it was. What we called Boudin was Blutwurst in Austria (only had it when hiking or skiing) and black pudding in the UK.

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  37. Does it bother you, Mimi, when the frivolous posts get the attention?

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  38. The thread that never ends! But it's been great fun.

    Who needs that sort of breakfast today, except those who do hard physical labor? But, as an occasional pleasure, it can't be beat. Breakfast is my favorite meal, meager as mine have come to be today.

    I love an egg over once, and allow myself the choice every other day, which is probably too often. On the other days, I eat a bowl of Cheerios with fruit and nuts, or, in cold weather, a bowl of oatmeal with fruits and nuts, along with toast and tea. I guess that's not so meager, after all.

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  39. Re the lure of popular British food, I made a batch of sausage rolls late last night and I've eaten the lot already.

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  40. Does it bother you, Mimi, when the frivolous posts get the attention?

    Lapin, I'll take any attention I can get, except that of trolls, but to be perfectly honest, it bothers me a little when the serious posts don't get the attention that I think the subject of the post deserves. From my counter, I can tell that some of those posts are read by quite a few visitors, even if the readers don't leave a word, so that makes the trouble worthwhile.

    On the other hand, I enjoy a thread such as this as much as anyone, and I'm pleased when the fun threads move along, even though the topic of the original post is long gone.

    Lapin, shame on you, but I'm just as bad. If the good food is there, I will eat it.

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  41. Lapin, home-made sausage rolls, yum. Proper sausage rolls make a very nice lunch.

    Re black pudding again, I must admit, I don't understand why people dislike the idea of it, because all meat contains blood before it is cooked, quite a lot of it. I roasted a pheasant last night and there was blood everywhere when I got it out of the package.

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  42. I just want to add that I have tasted black pudding. My dislike for the dish is not just because of its appearance. But I admit that black food is generally a bit off-putting for me.

    Cathy, it's not the blood, because I love gravy, and what is gravy but blood?

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  43. St Arbucks has been such a popular thread he should be made part of the Anglican calendar, perhaps :-)

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  44. Lapin, a carrot ocarina! Just what I've always wanted! The video was fascinating to watch, and the tone of the finished instrument was not at all bad. I loved the waste-not-want-not moment.

    Cathy, I strongly second your idea to find a place in the calendar of saints for St Arbucks.

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  45. 10+ lbs of green tomatoes, courtesy of the frosts of the last few nights. Tonight fried green tomatoes; tomorrow chutney, I guess.

    Have you ever considered a parallel/subsidiary food/recipes site?

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  46. Have you ever considered a parallel/subsidiary food/recipes site?

    I strongly second this idea!! :-)

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  47. I already write for a food blog. I think it would be a good idea as grandmothers are the best cooks and bakers around. Mine (RIP) certainly were.

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  48. Cathy and Lapin, I have a hard enough time keeping up with one blog. A better idea would be for you two to set up a food/recipes blog site.

    Or an alternative: if either of you want to write food/recipe columns, I'd gladly post them here at WB. They'd be a great asset and enhancement to my humble blog.

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  49. Sadly I don't have the brain space to run a blog either (even on a part-time basis), but foodie pieces are always fun :-)

    Lapin, I really am curious to know whether black pudding in your opinion is superior "with fat". The people I buy it from sell it with and without:

    http://www.blackface.co.uk/pick_mix.asp

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  50. To my taste, Cathy, the flavour of most meats is enhanced by a moderate quantity of fat. In this as in all things, moderation is a subjective concept.

    Re baked beans, mentioned above, good home-made ones are excellent, tho' as with sausage rolls I tend to eat far to much of them when they're around. In the US, there's far more variety than there used to be in the area of canned baked beans. Not just Heinz any more. eg Bush's BBs of talking golden retriever fame,presumably not marketed in the UK. I've gorged a can of their "Smokehouse Tradition Grillin' Beans" while writing this post.

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  51. Bush's Baked Beans with spices and seasonings added can be quite tasty. That's a dish that the grandchildren will sometimes eat on holidays. Thank goodness, some of them stop being quite so picky about food as they grow older.

    A "moderate" amount of fat is what makes a leg of lamb or a pork roast so delicious. LOL at the "moderate".

    I've eaten wild pig, and there's not nearly the fat in the meat as the farm-fed pigs, but the taste of the meat is still excellent.

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  52. This is my recipe for Boston Baked Beans. I use a crockpot rather than a beanpot, but, as I argue in the article, a crockpot and a beanpot are essentially the same item.

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  53. Lapin sent me a couple of jars of his chutney, and it is delicious, the best chutney I've ever tasted. The two batches tasted not quite the same, like Tom's vegetable soup - always different, but always good.

    Chris, you write nicely about food, like a professional. I assume the dishes you prepare are even better than your writing.

    If I'm going to cook dried beans, my recipe will be New Orleans-style Camellia red beans with rice. Tom cooked the dish yesterday, and it was yummy. I introduced him to the red beans, since it was not a staple where he grew up, nor is it much served around Thibodaux, where we live now.

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  54. Mimi: I enjoy Puerto Rican beans and rice and cook it occasionally. Have never had New Orleans style red beans and rice; I must look up a recipe.

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  55. Chris, if you cook New Orleans style red beans, try to use Camellia brand. Here's the link to an online seller. The other brands are not the same. There's a recipe on the back of the bag of Camellia red beans.

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