From Book I, page 66, of George Sandy's A Relation of a Iourney Begun An Dom. 1610. Foure Bookes Containing a Description of the Turkish Empire, of Ægypt, of the Holy Land, of the Remote Parts of Italy, and Islands Adioyning, first published in 1615. Sandys was an English traveler, writer and translator who, from 1621-31, lived in Virginia and during that time served as a council member of the crown colony of Virginia.
I've transliterated the paragraph pictured above, for those not familiar with 17th century typographical conventions:
Although they be destitute of Taverns, yet have they their Coffa-houses, which something resemble them. There sit they chatting most of the day; and sippe of a drinke called Coffa (of the berry that it is made of) in little China dishes as hot as they can suffer it: blacke as soote, and tasting not much unlike it (why not that blacke broth which was in use amongst the Lacedemonians?) which helpeth, as they say, digestion, and procureth alacrity: many of the Coffa-men keeping beautifull boyes, who serve as stales to procure them customers.Some notes:
1. It's amusing that Sandys thought the Turks' coffee tasted "not much unlike" soot. Another early English writer, Edward Terry, thought that coffee beans didn't really change the taste of the water they were brewed in. We may, then, surmise that coffee of the period had a taste somewhere between 17th century English water, and soot.
2. Sandys asks in an aside: "Why not that blacke broth which was in use amongst the Lacedemonians?" Good question, Mr Sandys! Why isn't coffee the same as the Lacedemonians' (Lacedemonia is an old term for ancient Sparta) black broth? Well, because Spartan black broth was blood soup, made from pig's trotters, pig's blood, salt and vinegar; a concoction whose flavor couldn't possibly have been mistaken for coffee, or 17th century English water, or soot. Well hopefully not, for everyone's sake.
3. "Stales" is an old word for a lure or decoy. Interestingly (and perhaps relatedly), Shakespeare also used the word "stale" in Much Ado About Nothing to mean "a cheap prostitute".
Anyway, let us now helpeth our digestions and procureth ourselves some alacrity, beautifull boyes optional.
44 comments:
I grew up in a Pollack neighborhood. They would make Czernina soup, which was made w/ duck blood. Czernina means "black" in Polish. It's an acquired taste, like headcheese.
Speaking of acquired tastes, I'll bet those beautifull boyes all had plentiful headcheese.
I thought at first that Sir Archy was at last among us.
"We may, then, surmise that coffee of the period had a taste somewhere between 17th century English water, and soot."
I dunno. Turkish coffee, of which I am fond, does have a bit of the smell and taste of dirt about it.
If one had never before tasted coffee and Turkish style was your first cup, it might easily be found repellant.
Eastern European's coffee is strong enough to curl your hair, but it's best drank out of very small cups with lots of sugar.
Palladian continues to bewitch and amaze.
Half-way through the post I had an incredible urge to make a pot of coffee.
Sooo.....things in the Muslim part of the world haven't changed much in 500 years.
There sit they chatting most of the day; and sippe of a drinke called Coffa [snip].......: many of the Coffa-men keeping beautifull boyes, who serve as stales to procure them customers
They are just better armed now and have the internet.
hello. that's why you put cream and sugar in there.
Byron once described Arab baths as "palaces of sherbets and sodomy".
So it explains why they're not the tough guys they like to think they are.
"hello. that's why you put cream and sugar in there."
Infidel!
Deborah, A fatwa on those who use cream and sugar in coffee! Our daughter got married @ a Persian restaurant. They had the best coffee I ever tasted. They use cardamom.
Nds- my dad grew up eating czernina and was always threatening to make it for us. He described how he would be sent down to the butcher shop where the headless ducks were hung upside down to collect the mmagic ingredient.
Fortunately he only ever made Grzybowa (mushroom barley soup) which is pretty fabulous. He was never satisfied though because he couldn't get the same type of mushrooms that his grandmother had used.
Never had any ferrin' coffee, Nick, except espresso. My recipe, when I'm not using beans I've ground, is water up to the 6-line and 1/2 cup of store-bought.
I'm not familiar with the taste of cardamom. Is that the outer covering of nutmeg? I'll bet it was a nice wedding.
Cardamom is it's own thing. I think mace is the outer part of nutmeg.
Coffee with cardamom sounds great.
Ah, that does sound more like it, C.
Ah, that does sound more like it, C.
C Stanley, I tried the czernina a couple times. No taste acquired. And, nobody makes that mushroom/barley soup like Pollacks! I would never say no when asked if I wanted a bowl.
Dad said they put prunes in the czernina, which made it sound even more bizarre and disgusting to us as kids.
He always put half of a cling peach in his chicken soup- not sure if that is a Pollack thing or just him. It is surprisingly good.
Ed:
""palaces of sherbets and sodomy""
Maybe we need to consider that when dissecting The Emperor of Ice-Cream.
Deborah, These Iranians were a great family. The 2 sons ran the biz and dad sat around drinking coffee and busting balls. They've been here awhile, I surmise they came here around the time of the late 70's revolution. When the old man found out I was a PI he said, "We hire you to go kill that Hitler running our country." I explained to him I didn't do assassinations! The food was fire roasted vegetables w/ sea bass, chicken or beef tenderloin. The only demand I had about the wedding was that it had to be very good food. My daughter found the place, I ate there, and said "Book it."
Sounds great, Nick. I like the busting balls thing; as it should be.
I want to make apricot rugelach one day. I have a recipe stowed somewhere.
I have alacrity to spare today.
Manning's attorney stated today he is going to petition the warden @ Fort Leavenworth to pay for Manning to have hormone therapy and then pay for his sex change. That has to be the toughest sell ever! I would pay to hear the phone conversations.
We need AllenS, RogerJ, or any other vets to chime in on this.
I have never wanted to try the czernina. But the dill pickle soup? Oh, my. I miss the Polish restaurants I used to live by.
The toughest sell ever? In this administration? Not only is it Lib fodder, it's wondrous distraction from what ails us.
My alacrity chakra is quite blocked. But I am one-half Polish, so there's that.
Rugelach ( Germans call it a kipfel) is a cookie, usually made with butter, cream cheese, sugar and a bit of flour., with nuts or preserves rolled inside. You would need to make more than one. Now if you want a sweet dough pastry/ bread/ kuchen that has yummy things rolled up inside of it, you would want a Masnica. Or as Germans call it kuchen. Mostly made with ground walnuts or poppy seeds rolled inside.
@Inga
Interesting. My great grandmother used to make what my mom called cookies that were very light - she said the outside would melt in your mouth - and inside was a piece of baked apple. My mom tried so many recipes over the years trying to replicate that "cookie". I wonder if it is something like Rugelach. I'm going to try it.
The rugelach I'm thinking of is from a Jewish recipe and looks something like this...
rugelach
...the form of which looks like what my Polish family calls nut rolls.
Yep those are rugelach. Both my Jewish mother in law and my German mother made the dough in an identical way. The fillings changed up a bit. We make them for Christmas and Hanukkah every year.
And then there's the discussions of whose come out too tough and whose are perfect lol.
Damn it you guys!!
Now I have to make some cookies. I have this awesome wild plum jam that will be perfect in rugelach. Searching for a recipe now.
We choose to build a transporter in this decade not because it is easy, but because we need DBQ's cookies!
I just read that several months ago Starbucks, at least in some locations, started offering chess sets (standard design pieces and board) made of silicone for patrons to use.
Has anyone seen this? See video.
It's worth browsing the rest of the site by a serious mad man who's designing a futuristic "Best Chessmen Ever" chess set for his daughter, and also has a family business in Slovenia manufacturing wooden chess sets, pens and furniture. From what I gather his company is the only one with the rights to the Dubrovnik chess set which was Bobby Fischer's favorite and is often imitated.
Gorgeous stuff. Plus I love his accent.
You HAVE to make cookies? Don't bullshit us, DBQ.
"Cookies" is her husband's nickname.
You people and your damn Eastern European cum Mid-East coffees. Come to New Orleans for some real coffee.
They love them boyes don't they?
Virgil are you talking N'Awlins CDM chicory blend or just a good french roast made in a drip pot?
The Polish version of rugelah I think would be kolaczki:
http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polishdesserts/r/kolaczki.htm
My husband's grandmother's recipe is excellent...not sure how the linked one compares but I think it's close. The secret of course is not overworking the dough.
You HAVE to make cookies? Don't bullshit us,
Ok.. You caught me. I don't HAVE to make cookies. I really do HAVE to make rice pudding though, because we have some left over rice that must be used up. Rice pudding with dried bing cherries and slivered almonds.
I do also HAVE to make fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy because I mentioned it this morning and The Dumbplumber is expecting it. He deserves it. Yesterday he had to get undressed outside after his second full day of plumbing under a house in the crawl space. We had to take his work coveralls, drape them over the truck bed and hose them off. The water ran black for at least 5 minutes.
We have had nothing but lightening and thunder, hail and periodic downpours for the last few days. This morning it started at 4:30 am and the coup de grace was a strike at 6:28 that rattled all the dished and glasses in the cupboards. Screw that....I'm getting up and making some Coffa. The news said we had over 280 strikes in just our area this morning. I believe them. Now we have constant helicopters going back and forth over our house to work the fires and strike crews are pouring into the area.
The cats are traumatized.
@C. Stanley/
LOL. Hell, either way. But the ABSOLUTE best is actually made by a little local outfit called "Try Me Brand" in the "By-Water" off of Poland Ave. just down-river from the Quarter. It comes in a brown paper bag with red-ink stamp. Lots of the better 4-star restaurants in N.O. actually use it, (Antoine's, Sun-Ray Grill, Cafe Degas, Court of Two Sisters, come to mind) but the brand itself is almost unk even in N.O. even tho its been there since 1925. Of course people in Baton Rouge claim their "Community Coffee" brand is tops (I have a brother-in-law that absolutely refuses to drink anything else, lol) Did you know that 1/3rd of all coffee in the US enters thru the Port of New Orleans? Coffee is BIG down here.
(BTW, check out good art on the "Try-Me" brand hist by Googling "Try Me" brand and hitting on the "Offbeat Magazine" article.)
Infidel!
Among other things... :)
Good to know, virgil. I've never heard of it but I have a niece who lives in Bywater (Louisa St.) and I'll bet she's familiar with it.
I was never impressed by Community coffee either but it certai ly is popular there, and in Baton Rouge. It's fine, just nothing special IMO. Love the drip pot method though.
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