[SCA-AE] food merchants at war

[David Friedman]

>I pretty much have to agree on all points of your observation, as 
>well as the ethnic foods thing.
>
>We go to great lengths when doing feasts to make period and good 
>tasting food.....why is it so difficult to have something of that 
>caliber at an event attended by so many who look for such?
>
>Just my opinion and everyone has one!  *smile*
>
>Erzebet
>Barony of Blackstone Mtn.
>Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>
>...



>i DO wish that some sca person-owned establishment could open and serve
>something interesting. or something 'ethnic' that isn't made so white bread
>as to be to be unrecognizable ('fajitas' without sour cream or salsa
>anyone?)  or something not so totally mundane that you could find at a
>sporting event....but i don't think the coopers are going to allow that -
>and they control the merchant area and that is that.
>
>rufina

What struck me about this discussion was the idea that what the SCA 
needs is "something ethnic," along with the comment by another poster 
who saw Taste of Cathay as an example of what we need. I have nothing 
against ethnic restaurants, but ethnic is not the same thing as 
period. Modern Greek, or Chinese, or Middle-eastern or Italian food 
is modern food, just as modern American is. Other people's cooking 
isn't frozen in time any more than ours is. Chinese cooking uses 
Chili peppers and peanuts, Hungarian uses paprika, Italian uses 
tomatoes, middle eastern uses tomatoes, New World beans, and much 
else--ingredients that were not available to those cultures until, at 
the earliest, the final century of our period.

It would be nice if there were at least one establishment at Pennsic 
that offered period food--but the last such, so far as I know, was 
the Sated Tyger, which disappeared decades ago.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com