sca-cooks Re: 13th century English forest

[Uduido@aol.com]

> I never was asking about including modern dishes - I'm not "childish"
> (as another poster insinuated) with my food tastes 

	Heh. Gomen nasai. My apologies for being unclear. As the infamous
'another poster', let me assure you that I in no way intended my
comments to refer personally to you. If at some point in the future I
desire to insult you (an occurance I find highly unlikely), there will
be no doubt as to the application of my words.

> Ron Martino Jr wrote:
> >
> > ...warning, rant to follow...
> 
> Oops, my apologies, it would seem. I didn't mean to trod on "sacred"
> ground.

	Generally, when someone asks 'is such-and-such period?' the goal is to
justify it's use in a dish. It was to that tendency that I spoke, since
I did not realize the intent of your questioning. Again, gomen nasai.

> I bet you'll find it amazing that I agree with you.. but I do believe a
> balance must be struck between plausible medieval dishes, that is,
> dishes of quasi-medieval nature prepared in a medieval way, and those
> that are truely authentic that everyone at a feast will turn their nose
> up at. Educating 150 feasters would be wonderful, but I'd also like to
> feed them.
> 
> -Eogan of the Open Kitchen-

	Been there, faced that. Medieval cooking is not greatly accepted in
this part of the known world. At one feast the comment was, "Now this is
what people want, not lark's tongues and hummingbird wings like they ate
in period." (all of the food being served was close enough to authentic
to satisfy even my pickiness...)

	While there are certainly many a strange and unusual dish lurking in
the recipe collections we have available, there is no reason to serve
them to the entire hall. We have the same sorts of dishes today -
sashimi, kimchee, haggis, ballpark hotdogs, but do not expect them to
please everyone. I suggest we select our feast menus with the same eye
towards appealing *and* authentic dishes. In time, when folk become used
to the less 'outlandish' dishes, we can move on to a few of the more
unique medieval creations.

	Yumitori