SC - questions

[Jeanne Stapleton]

> I've never been a fan of the "dine and dash" method
> of eating.  Particularly 
> when I have paid good money to go to a "feast".  I
> like a long, leisurley 
> meal, with plenty of entertainment and good
> conversation in between courses.  
> Sure, a break or two for smokes behind the woodshed,
> or begging your way into 
> a Pelican is always appreciated, but, particularly
> if the event is a "feast 
> event", the meal should take precedence.  

Balthazar, *big honkin' "me too"!*  In a kingdom I
dwelt in, I heard the circulated "wisdom" that "one
can't expect people to stay sitting, you have to rush
the food out with no breaks or they'll get up and
wander around and start talking to people".

Huh?  My first thought was, ungraciously, "Were they
raised in a barn?"  :-/  I was brought up, and I felt
that in the SCA if anywhere it should be even more so,
that at a feast you sat for the evening and made your
table your little world; you talked with your fellow
diners, you got to know people at the table you didn't
previously know, you enjoyed something that we really
come close to re-creating (save the true above and
below the salt for the most part, which I think is
better--the chance to meet and mingle with newcomers
and old-timers alike) the true crossroads of medieval
manors:  the feast table, where all met and
socialized.

I do not like the idea that cooks are there to be
caterers, to serve a Denny's roast turkey and mashed
potato special fit in between the "more important
things"; a feast event should be just that, and the
diners should focus on enjoying the good company and
conversation, savoring the food that should be the
height of the cooks' performance art, and *not*
getting
up and standing around blocking the way for the
servers, the people who *need* to get up (privies,
smokes, whatever), and the entertainers, if an option.

And that's another tiny peeve of mine:  I don't think
there should be back-to-back entertainment all evening
that completely usurps any opportunity for conversa-
tion.  I particularly dislike people yelling "Please
pray [sic] silence for the [entertainer]"; the enter-
tainment itself should command attention.  Entertain-
ment at feast should be used like seasoning in the
food:  sparingly, for flavor.

Berengaria, who loves good feasts


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