SC - meat days and fast days - MIXED?

[LrdRas@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/28/98 5:08:58 PM Eastern Standard Time,
memorman at oldcolo.com writes:

<<   But when we recreate feasts, we recreate feast
 foods.  No one would hold a feast and then serve poor fare.>>

Agreed.  There are many people in the SCA who insist on being 'peasant'
personas for whatever bizarre reasons.  This is simply not in accordance with
official policy which states that all SCA members are to be considered
nobility.  The SCA tradition is to recreate the 'best' of the Middle Ages'.
That being a given people who 'insist' on being treated as peasants should not
expect anything less for their anti-organization play.  Frankly put, if you
insist on eating as a peasant at feasts then the bottom line is for you to
provide your own peasant fair.  The 'best' does not translate into serving
foods suitable for the poor at feasts.  In a more practical vein, the recipes
we have to choose from cere created for tee upper middle class at the very
least and for the nobility for all practical purposes.

What this translates into is that if a person insists on being treated as a
peasant then they should line up at the back door and wait for the leftovers
and scraps to be thrown out to them.
 
 << Having served fish at a couple of SCA feasts, I'm not about to make that
mistake
 again. >>

The question that comes immediately to mind is how did you prepare the fish?
I have served fish at every feast I have prepared over the last 13 years
except 2 times.  Everytime the fish was completely eaten with positive
comments.  I don't think that excluding fish is the answer.  Please expand on
your experience, if you would be willing, because your experience with serving
fish has not been mine.

All in all, I agree that 'vegetarians' as we know them in the current middle
ages did not exist during the first middle ages.  I also agree that it is
absurd for 2 or 3 individuals (whether they are veggies or allergic) should
reasonably assume that it would be appropriate to ask that a feast for 100
plus people be specifically geared toward their special needs or wants.

Unfortunately, there is an insidious social custom afoot today which
erroneously thinks that because one person is offended by something there is
some kind of obligation to cater to that selfish whim.  I, like you, ignore
such insensitivity to the needs of the majority who are trying to experience
as closely as possible the way they did things in the MA.

Ras
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