[SCA-AE] bardic discussion continued - Warning: A Bit Long

[M. Ondercin.]

On Tue, January 23, 2007 15:28, Ruth Morrisson wrote:

Greetings,

    I apologize for happening into this discussion without having
read all the thread, but I wished to offer a thought.

     In the Kingdom I recently moved from, my barony among others,
often served feasts as an early afternoon event (anywhere from
12-4pm).  I'm not completely privy to the arrangements for
pre-cooking, but I do know that part of the arrangements
included a site that was open to the cooks between 8-9am, or
earlier.   Since it is more the custom and widely publicized,
most of those feasts are well attended and well recieved.

     One of the fun things was that it allowed my barony at least to
play with serving a reclining/mid-eastern style feast, and at
more formal feasts the removes were interspersed with
performance of our Commedia, performing a play for the diners
pleasure.  Which gave our cooks a little extra breathing room
between those removes.

     For our Mid-Eastern reclining feast they often scheduled some
of the contests and performances between the removes/waves of
service, and it was a very fun and relaxed atmosphere for the
day, and it's become a yearly traditon.

      In addition to earlier feasts, many times they held our courts
earlier. One first thing in the morning to open the event and
take care of "old" and/or Kingdom business and then one or two
more as the day progressed for baronial business and closing
Kingdom business.       But then again, most courts didn't
include entertainment, and things were kept moving fairly
quickly at most courts that I attended.

      So just a thought from a recent immigrant,

                      Melisande


-}> It would, but it would absolutely kill the cooks, I suspect.
-}> Additionally, these days, most people expect their main (large)
meal
-}> in
-}> the evening (rather than what would be, effectively, lunchtime).
 So
-}> not only are you asking the cooks to get the meal on the table 4 to
-}> 5
-}> hours sooner than they're used to being able to plan for, time and
-}> cooking-wise, but people will probably not eat it (making for lots
-}> of
-}> waste, if the cooks manage to pull off a decent feast, and lots of
-}> complaints about skimpy portions -- even if half of it goes back to
-}> the
-}> kitchen untouched -- if they don't, or only do a one-remove feast).
-}> Sounds like a lose-lose situation all around.
-}> On Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at 03:09  PM, arhylda at aol.com wrote:
-}>
-}>> I've always wanted to see an event where the feast happened
-}>> earlier in
-}>> the day - say at 1 or 2 PM, leaving more time for dancing, court,
-}>> etc.
-}>> Wouldn't that be more "period", anyway? : )