December 7, 2007
Ambrosia
Ambrose, himself
Contrary to popular opinion, ambrosia is not known to be named for nor invented by old Bishop Ambrose whose feast today is usually preëmpted by Pearl Harbor Day, but it could have been. In Greek, ambrosia means “immortality” and the dish was thought to be what the gods ate on Mt Olympus.
The ambrosia* we’ll be eating around holiday boards these days will have oranges and coconut and cherries among less discernible things. Sharon Tyler Herbst’s “Food Lover’s Companion” (Barron’s, Hauppauge, NY, 1990) says on page nine that it is a “dessert of chilled fruit, usually oranges and bananas mixed with coconut,” and that it is also “sometimes served as a salad.”
Ambrose, you’ll remember, wasn’t even baptised when he was chosen bishop of Milan in 397 AD. He was just such a rock star and the choices available from holy ranks were so abominable, they simply couldn’t live without him. Had he been around these days with all the narcissism and other shenanigans it takes to get bishops into harness, he’d probably never have made it, and we’d continue to wonder where the dessert didn’t come from.
*Maybe “heavenly hash” might fit the old bishop better, but did they have marshmallows then?
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