SC - Bal's Sooo Funny

[Christine A Seelye-King]

I went to the demo yesterday at Britfest (a British car show).  The food 
game was a hit.  We were kinda tucked away in a corner, and not a lot 
of people came into our area, but I was able to coax most of the people 
who wandered by the SCA table to give it a try.  I had a large wooden 
bowl with the following foods:

a jar of rice
a can of green peas
a can of sweet corn
a jar of chili peppers
a can of chick peas
a bottle of cinnamon
a can of tomatoes
a can of cocoa
a jar of powdered mustard
a can of potatoes

I challenged people to sort the old world foods from the new... and gave 
the hint that there were 5 of each.  No one got a perfect score.  A 
surprising number of people stumbled over easy things like corn (I 
though most Americans would remember the grade-school stories about 
the Indians teaching the settlers to plant corn).

Most of the people played as a group -- a couple or a parent with kids or 
bunch of 20-something friends.  It was pleasant and amusing to see 
them arguing passionately over the choices.  ("Joe, NOT the tomatoes!" 
 "Dad, they could have had rice with trade from the Orient -- remember 
Marco Polo?")  They swapped some items back and forth and 
eventually would have two equal piles.  "Final answer?" I asked some of 
them, and got a chuckle.

Afterwards, I praised them for their efforts, and sorted the piles 
correctly, delivering some tidbits of food history as I did.  As I moved the 
chick peas, for instance, I talked about most beans being New World.  I 
talked about how much of medieval cuisine would be familiar to modern 
folks -- roast meats, fruits, noodles with cheese.  I mentioned some of 
the differences, but in a state that probably has more Indian restaurants 
per capita than any other, cinnamon in meat dishes doesn't come 
across as very weird.  I stressed that medieval people were like us in 
enjoying good food.  Then pointing to the can of cocoa, I'd say, "They 
didn't have chocolate or Snickers Bars, but they did like sweet things 
and they did have candy."  And I'd open up the covered tins and offer 
them samples of marzipan and gingerbrede (redaction from the 
Miscellany).

For those who showed particular interest, I pulled out volume 1 of 
_Thousand Eggs_ and turned to the recipe for stewed beef, showing 
them the original Middle English, the translation into modernized 
English, and the redacted recipe.  I explained that medieval recipes 
were like your grandmother's recipes ("take some of this and add 
enough of that"), and most of them could relate very well to that.

All in all, I think it worked extremely well.  The game was more popular 
than I would have expected with adults.  Most people seemed to walk 
away with a "gee, that's interesting... I never knew that" attitude.  I do 
think the game made it possible to convey more information than I could 
have managed with a passive display.

My thanks for the great idea, I will definitely try it again.


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net