SC - Authenticity Buffs (the continuing saga)

[Lee-Gwen Booth]

Unto the Gathered Cooks does Gwynydd of Culloden Send Greetings:

Well, the "Tavern Event" has been and gone (the one at which dominoes
threatened to make an appearance).  All in all it went well, but there were
a few "authenticity quibbles".  Actually, one of them was pretty major.

The meat stew (really more of a watery soup - but then we were forewarned
that the food would be light on, so I didn't mind that) contained pieces of
some strange white vegetable (the "Tavern Owner" explained them away by
calling them "Scottish turnips" - which was cute.).  Obviously, they were
potato and I did (in good humour and in persona) inquire about them.  I was
a bit disturbed, because it used to be one of the first bits of food lore
one was told was that "potatoes aren't period".  Still, it did give me the
opportunity to do a bit of teaching to a newbie or two (one of them was
convinced that potatoes were native to Ireland), so I guess it wasn't all
bad.

Oh, and we could have done without the modern "Celtic" folksongs which the
electronic musicians were playing - not that I would necessarily have
noticed by myself.  My table mate and chauffeur is a music buff and he
noticed it straight away!

Gwynydd