With colder weather approaching, this is great soup weather. What is your favorite soup? According to TheMost10.com, the ten most popular soups in America are, in order: chicken noodle, tomato, clam chowder, broccoli cheddar, french onion, potato leek, minestrone, butternut squash, tortilla, and Ramen noodles.1 Obviously, I wasn’t polled because my list would have started with split pea, tomato bisque, and clam chowder. Chicken noodle wouldn’t have even made the cut unless it was a homemade chicken noodle that some of our church ladies have made through the years. Now, that’s what chicken noodle soup should taste like!
While on the cruise ship, they daily had a “seafood” chowder. Some days it was salmon. Other days it was clam. They might have had shrimp. One day, they must have dumped all the seafood leftovers together into one big pot. Amazing!
Well, today is National Vichyssoise Day. I had heard of the soup but had no idea how to spell it and I’ve never had it. Looking at the recipe, though, I definitely want to try it.
“Culinary historians debate the origin of Vichyssoise. However, the man most credited
with the reinvention of the soup is French chef Louis Diat.”2 A simple recipe can be found at www.allrecipes.com/recipe/13392/classic-vichyssoise/. The ingredients include butter, leeks, onion, potato, salt, pepper, marjoram (herb), thyme, bay leaf, chicken broth, and whipping cream. Nothing too unusual except for one thing.
It’s served cold. Vichyssoise is a cold soup. Some of you are gagging at the thought!
As I read this, I thought of a popular, old saying. Vichyssoise isn’t the only dish served cold. Revenge is a dish best served cold. The original phrase showed up in Eugene Sue’s novel Memoirs of Matilda. The phrase was “revenge is very good eaten cold.” In the 1972 film The Godfather, Don Corleone said, “Revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold. But Capt. James T. Kirk of the Federation starship Enterprise attributed the phrase to the Klingons in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). He said, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
The meaning is simple. Revenge will be better and more enjoyable if you wait a while to deliver it rather than enacting it immediately. Kind of like vichyssoise. It’s a good thing that we don’t get our doctrine from Capt. Kirk or a soup recipe!
Romans 12:17-19 says, “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. (18) If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. (19) Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
Do you mean that when someone does me wrong that I can’t get even? I can’t look at someone and say, “Just you wait!” or “Better watch your back!”?? Can I at least make them think I’m going to get even and watch as paranoia and nervousness sets in? Well, I guess you can if you don’t care what God has to say about the subject. If you do care, then the answer is NO! We cannot do any of those things. We have to leave it in God’s hands and walk away from it.
Let me be 100% honest with you. There have been people in all of our lives, mine included, where we can “justify” getting even. They deserve it, especially if they’ve caused great harm and pain to us or our loved ones. Christians, we have to walk away and let God handle things. We aren’t allowed to “take the law in our own hands.” God’s law always 
supersedes man’s law and will always be fair and just.
So what am I supposed to do when I’ve been hurt? I’m going to drop the final verses in our laps like a big chicken and run away from the devotional! This is between us, God, and His Word as to whether or not we will do what He says.
And if you are going to do anything “cold,” go eat your vichyssoise.
“Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. (21) Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:20-21)
1https://www.themost10.com/10-most-popular-soups-in-america/#
2https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-vichyssoise-day-november-18
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