SC - Unhistoric things we serve WAS:Shepherds Pie

[JVButlerJr@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/9/00 7:02:45 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
mooncat at in-tch.com writes:

> And while the Ottoman empire was indeed evident in parts of _Western_
> Europe, you have a long way to go before you convince me that what
> someone might have eaten at one end of a very large empire was also
> eaten at the other end....

    How fine do you want to splt this particular hair?  "Evidence that they 
ate tomatoes in the small Ottoman village of Hormuz is not evidence that they 
ate is just outside of Hormuz."  "Just because they ate potatoes at 1233 
Mohammed Street in Constantinople on Friday, June 12, 1103 doesn't mean they 
ate potatoes at 1233 Mohammed Street in Constantinople on Saturday, June 13, 
1103."
    Seriously.  How far do you want to take this particular line of argument? 
 No.  There is no evidence that the items I mentioned were eaten everywhere.  
But they were eaten, if only in Asia.
    If it was eaten *anywhere* in the Ottoman Empire, it was eaten in the 
Ottoman Empire.  I *used* to think that this would go without saying.

    The rest of your message is being replied to separately.

    Suleyman