SC - Unhistoric things we serve WAS:Shepherds Pie

[Decker, Terry D.]

Khadijah wrote:
>     I must beg the forgiveness of this list, but I have been confronted too
>many times by many people in our organization who despise anything not
>blatantly western european.  I wish that I could say this was confined to
>certain areas, or certain groups.
>
>     However, my question was predicated by personal and deragatory missives
>that I have received since joining this list from its members.

Hey, doood, yer takin' stuff waaaaay too personally - perhaps due to 
your experience of having people in your kingdom/principality/etc. 
criticizing your interests to your face.

We've got all sorts here on this list, including a healthy smattering 
of Near Easterners, and including His Grace Cariadoc, who has much to 
contribute on Near Eastern food, not all of which is "Moorish", or 
more correctly, Maghribi or Andalusian (since the word "Moor" has 
such variable meanings within the time period covered by the SCA). 
After all, he has made al-Baghdadi more readily available to us, and 
Baghdad ain't in the former Roman province known as Mauritania :-)

Look, we get all hot under the chef's apron on this list every once 
in a while, because we have so many cooks here with experience and 
with areas of specialty. And we squabble and argue some of the time. 
But most of the time we just get excited sharing recipes and 
experiences cooking more-or-less historically accurate food, and, oh 
my! helping each other out.

I've been in the SCA one year. Since i have a Maghribi/Andalusian 
persona, I began cooking modern ethnic Maghribi food (and knowing 
that was what i was doing). I am now generally preparing historical 
Near Eastern food. I continue to experiment and learn, and this list 
is an invaluable resource.

Of course, if anyone makes bald, flat statements regarding certain 
foods or methods of preparation, they'll get challenged. And i think 
that's a *good* thing. Means one has to do one's research, one can't 
just be winging it on rumor and assumptions.

And if someone makes a new statement regarding an uncorroborated bit 
of information, naturally we want authentication and documentation. 
We are, for the most part, scholars as well as cooks.

But we are also a personable lot. We care about each other and do 
post personal messages on occasion. We post questions about and 
recipes for "out-of-period" foods. We even make jokes!

Naturally, the primary *focus* of this list is historically accurate 
food, food prep, and food service, but there's room for other stuff 
here.

And if things get too hot, you can always run for The Rock (tm) - uh, 
now, who owns that trademark? margali?

Anahita Gauri al-shazhiyya bint-al-Karim al-hakim al-Fassi

Just strolling around the outside of the Cathedral
enjoying the balmy spring weather
and whistling and twiddling her thumbs