SC - Food Attitude

[Tara Sersen]

> This is the same in Aethelmearc and a good portion of the East Kingdom. I
> tend to think that period is 'weird' is regional and not a general attitude
> held by a majority of people. However, a vocal minority can make the problem
> seem larger than it actually is. For instance, the statement that 'fighters'
> are more prone to reject period food is a myth, at least ion my neck of the
> woods. The fighters here are very supportive of A & S and make it clear that
> they are disappointed if the feast is not a reasonable attempt at period food
> (or at least the fighters that have taken the time to pre-register for the
> feast). :-)

I'm a wee bit behind on my e-mail (400 messages or so...) but...

What I've faced lately hasn't been "the fighters won't like it", it's a
couple of non-fighters who jump up and scream "that won't be GOOD FOR
the fighters."  I'm trying to do a period dayboard this summer.  I
wanted to make beef tarts, chicken tarts, veggie/cheese tarts and fruit
tarts, pickles & pickled vegetables, eggs, pretzels or bread & butter. 
I keep getting arguments about things like "eggs will make the fighters
stomach's upset."  I counter, "Ok, then they don't have to eat them. 
I'm providing plenty else."  This generally gets me a dirty look.  I
gave in on the "fighters NEED fresh fruits and vegetables because of
their water content".  But, I didn't give in on "fighters will have
difficulty eating tarts.  Make everything finger food."

Even at at "fighting event," fighters will make up only at most a third
of the attendees, but people seem to want to cater to them, without even
neccisarily knowing what they want - they cater to what they think
fighters need.  These people assume they're all "dumb stick jocks," and
therefore you must make only what is good for them, period or not,
because they're not smart enough to drink enough water unless they're
eating it in fruit or to eat pickles instead of eggs when they need
salt.  The rest of the attendees who are there to experience something
medieval be damned.  As far as I'm concerned, if some rare fighter is
truely too dumb to drink water, it's his own fault, and he'll learn the
hard way.  Why should I compromise my dayboard to serve
"high-water-content" foods under the assumption that all fighters are
this dumb?  Why should I serve only pickles and not eggs, because the
fighters need pickles (and I am happy to provide those,) but they might
also (or instead) eat the eggs and somebody thinks they're bad for them?

Ok, I'm done ranting.

Magdalena vnder Brugghe