SC - Tastes of Britain Class

[Michael F. Gunter]

> On the other hand, I would love to taste a lamington, something I've
> only seen described in a children's book. Lochac has many food
> adventures we have no access to. An SCA friend once traded care
> packages with someone there, just package foods, small toys and
> books. They have some fabulous flavors of jello!  
> 
> Yes the Jelly (as we do not have jello) comes in many interesting
> flavours, Mango, passion fruit,port,and the standard strawberry,
> orange and lemon.
> 
Port jello!  Yowzah!  Send some over!  

Last winter I saw cranberry and cranberry-raspberry jello out on the
shelves.

The "new" "sparkling" jellos are all the rage at the moment.


> That's about the only reason to do it. I remember on first trip to
> the US in '82, I wanted to try all the American foods which I had
> only ever read about or seen on TV - twinkies, M&Ms, pop-tarts,
> hershey's bars... Someone bought me a 2 pack of twinkies and I had
> one bite. Pretty bad. Then I read the label - those things are not
> baked, they're produced by chemical reaction and contain no
> recognisable food elements! When I returned from my US tour 6 weeks
> later, the other twinkie was still in 'perfect' condition sitting on
> the bench - even mould and bugs wouldn't touch it. 
> 
> You can get M&Ms, hershey bars and pop-tarts here now - no longer
> exotic. The first two are fine (like smarties and cadbury's
> respectively), but pop tarts taste like icing coated cardboard which
> you put in the toaster (and don't burn). One bite was enough there
> too...
> 
One of my favorite things to do with visitors from Australia was to
take them to the supermarket, especially late at night, when the
store staff were free to romp through the aisles with them and
explain products.  I also enjoyed Australian grocery stores.  I miss
the large "ready mix Thai" sauces and packets--there was a
fabulous honey-lemon chicken sauce in a jar which was to die for.

I have a friend in Ireland who I'm supposed to be sending a
Fritos/Doritos care package to...now here's another interesting
subject:  potato chip flavors!  Australia had some of the weirdest
(from my viewpoint) flavors I'd heard of.  But there's one
obscure company here that produces flavors like "steak N onion",
and "dill pickle".  Sounds bad to me, but what do I know?


> I remember when I took a trip to England... at Fortnam and Mason's
> there were American foods in the gourmet section:  Duncan Hines cake
> mix, Marshmallow fluff, etc. I was amazed. But then, I realized
> there were Cadbury chocolates in the candy machines in London and I
> had to get Cadbury at the gourmet shops here in the States. One
> country's common food is another country's gourmet treat...
> 
> Meadhbh
> 
One of my profs jsut got back from trips to England and Canada--we
always beg for him to make an Aero bar run.  Those are my big
weakness.  Chocolate is not one of my big things, but I *love*
mint Aero bars.  I have five snuggled in my filing cabinet as I type.


> > Yeah, the last is a good point, one I tried to make but may have left
> > unstressed: it's one thing to expect adults, who are in this organization
> > voluntarily, to sit through courts and other delays before being fed. Children,
> > who are often at the event primarily so that their parents can attend, are
> > another story, and expecting them to wait an unknown time upon the vagaries of
> > courts and the whims of the muckety-mucks is a little unfair.
> 
> I would like to stress that it is the parent's responsibility to fix
> this, not the kitchen steward.  The kitchen steward is stressed
> enough, esp. if court is late.  An additional pre-feast children's
> feast or different slate of dishes at feast is not gonna help
> matters. [Subsequent finishing of my downloaded mail indicates this
> is quite often done without a great deal of stress to the kitchen
> steward. I bow to experience and will keep that in mind when I
> cook.]
> 
It *is* the parent's responsibility, but a little planning will help 
keep the stress down to a minimum on both parts and will help
keep the feast family-friendly.  Parents can opt to do the "early
kids' remove" action or take their child out to Burger King.
They still have a choice, unless the site is far from any modern
conveniences--then they can pack those snack-baskets.

Once again, I'm sorry to always get so cranky at this list, but
I do get tired of the "responsibility card" always being played;
it's the parents' responsibility, but how about making it a little
easier on them?  Please?  :-)

> > As far as period food goes, I've found kids like the "weird tastes" of period
> > dishes. An example that comes immedietly to mind was when I served a Blanche
> > Porrey at an outdoor feast. Everyone liked it but the kids really loved the
> > fact that it had cinnamon in it.
> 
> Although many children are inadvertantly taught to like a small
> range of food, other children are refreshingly open-minded! If no
> one has ever insisted that stew (f'rinstance) must taste like THIS,
> then stew tasting like THAT doesn't phase them.
> 
One of my friends who is a very open-minded woman and has two
daughters once philosophically remarked that kids are fascists--
hard as she has tried, her older daughter *needs* everything to 
always be a certain way.  Given that Marya has tried very hard to
raise her to be flexible, open-minded, try new things, etc., she's
puzzled as to where this attitude has come from.  


> Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 01:32:02 EDT
> From: Varju at aol.com
> Subject: Re: SC - So ya wanna Twinkie
> 
> I feel so bizzare sometimes . . .like right now.
> 
> I'll admit, I rather like Twinkies and their chocolate covered
> counterparts, the Chocodile.  Relatively regularly I eat Hamburger
> Helper and boxed macaroni and cheese (I was a starving college
> student, it was a staple).  I like fast food french fries. . .heck I
> like fast food. . .I order  out for pizza
> 
I like Spaghetti-Os and strawberry Quik.  On the other hand, I
love beef Wellington.  I honestly don't think that an eclectic
palate degrades one in any fashion.  :-)


Berengaria

jstaplet at adm.law.du.edu
University of Denver
College of Law
Ext. 6288
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