SC - History of Taverns

[Brenna of Lyonsbane]

As usual, Adamantius, your dis-course on courses was most intelligent and
knowledgeable ;-) I think part of the perception problem we're having here is
a slight variation between the modern concept of the course, which is usually
one or two items served simultaneously- perhaps crackers with one's soup, and
maybe a choice of soups, vegetables with the main meat dish, or perhaps a
choice of desserts, vs. the more Medieval/early period idea of making each
course or "remove" an entire meal in itself. Our modern 12 course meals are
simple in each chronological presentation, and are expected to be finished in
an hour or two- the early "feasts" were an entire day's eating, separated
frequently by entertainments. I suspect this is the reason that early SCAdians
used the term "remove" to differentiate between the two types of meals.

I suggest we look at the degeneration the term "banquet" has suffered over the
years, as a means of comparison. In its original usage, "banquet" implied a
feast similar to the multi-course meals we moderns consider highly
sophisticated. In its modern usage, one goes to company Blah's or  politician
Joe Blow's fundraising "banquet" and is served lukewarm over-salted soup, a
wilted salad, rubber chicken in library-paste gravy with cooked-until-they're-
grey vegetables, and soggy pie a la half-melted mode!

Personally, I don't care what the person in charge of preparing the meal is
called or what the various sections of the meal are called, as long as the
food falls somewhere in the category between and including edible and
delicious!

Cariadoc, any comments?

Phlip
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