SC - Re: Peach pits (Recipe)

[harper@idt.net]

I have been asked to post this to the list. Master Llewellyn is subscribing 
as we speak. The only adjustment I have made is to try and separate his 
comments from the original text.

<<Hauviette,

Would you please send this on to SCA-Cooks for me as I am not currently a
member? Also, please  forward resubscription info to me?

Thanks,
LLEW

 Dear Phlip,
Having been in the kitchen you described in your most recent post, I feel
I must take issue with several items.


> >Recently, I suffered what had to be the worst feast I have ever suffered 
> through. 

 First of all, in our Kingdom, it is traditional to wait a few weeks for
the cook to recover and to perform their own post mortem.  It is only
 courteous and polite.  By posting your remarks when you did, it served
only to pinpoint the exact feast you were describing in the minds of many.
 You might have included the Chief Cook's name and the event for all that
 it mattered after that. Further, I find it odd that you did not post these
 remarks to our Kingdom Cooks' weblist (as I know you are a member).  I was
 always taught that it is not polite to wash one's dirty linen in public.
 Further, you have already been asked before by members of your own Kingdom
 to please take your criticisms directly to the cook involved before
 posting them elsewhere as you create much more embrassment and resentment
>than would otherwise have occurred. 


> >Those of you who know which feast I'm talking about, please don't
> specify- I'm sure the Feastocrat (sic), who has a reputation for serving
> good feasts, is embarrassed enough, and I'm looking at it as a learning
> experience, trying to figure out how to make it edible. 


 She has no reason to be embarassed as there was no one who left hungry.
 Further, your account comes off as more of an attack than a remediation.

> >Many things went wrong, including apparently troubles in the kitchen, and
> the servers playing > politics with the beverages, but there were many 
other errors as well. 


 Phlip, as you were not in that kitchen, you do not know what went right or
 wrong. To be blunt, you should have asked. I, myself, would have been glad
to have told you what went right and wrong.  The only "trouble" in the
 kitchen was a pot of burned rice that meant we had less than we hoped but
 as there was so much other food, this did not seem to matter that much.
 

> >The feast was intended to be Chinese- there was no apparent attempt to
> make it particularly period. Looking at the menu and the ingredients, I
> knew it was going to be bland, with an edge towards sweet, so in
> preparation for this, I brought my own condiments, including good (Golden
> Mountain brand) soy sauce, black vinegar, cider vinegar, hoisin sauce, hot
> Chinese mustard, wasabi (yes, I know it's Japanese) and extra spicy Mrs.
> Dash. I might just as well have brought ketchup, yellow mustard, and
> Miracle Whip, because nothing made that food edible ;-( 


 Again, by putting out a critique of this type, you are completely ignoring
 your stated purpose of telling us how to make this feast better.
 Inflammatory phrases and words only serve to hurt and embarass - not help.
 

> >The first error was choosing the dishes. In Chinese cooking, the cooks
> tend  to balance the flavors- hot, sour, salt, and sweet. This was not only 
> primarily sweet, but there was far too little of the intended spices used.
> 

 Remember, cooking is a plastic art. There is never a spicing error as long
 as that particular cook has decided that the dish is to their liking.  I
 might not like how you would have spiced these dishes and vice versa.
 Always make these critiques a positive experience.
 

> Feast Ingredients 
> On the table as we arrived: 
> *Marbled Tea Eggs 
> Eggs, soy sauce, Star anise, tea, 5-spice powder 
> *Egg Flower Soup 
> Eggs, chicken stock, water chestnuts, salt 
> 
> >The marbled tea eggs were dead pale. Obviously, they hadn't been soaked
> in 
> the marinade enough- they might as well have been served as hard-boiled 
> eggs. 

 Phlip, I made those eggs and they were soaked in the strongest mixture I
 could create for almost three days. I do apologize if your egg was pale.
 

> >The egg-flour soup tasted to me like commercial chicken broth w/canned
> sliced water chestnuts added- if there were any eggs in it, I couldn't
> find them, unless they'd been whipped into an emulsion. This was, at best,
> luke warm. 

 Unfortunately, confusion in the feast hall meant that we had to ask people
 to leave the hall so we could finish setting up. This contributed to the
 chill on the soup.
 
> >My suggestion would have been to serve the soup later, and hot, with
> perhaps > something like Chinese pickles to go with the eggs, if they wanted
> something > to be there on the table. 
>

Finally, a constructive comment!


> First Remove (sic) 
> *Steamed pork buns 
> Biscuit mix, vegetable oil, sugar, ginger, ground pork, hoisin 
> sauce 
> *Potsticker Dumplings 
> Wonton wrappers, chinese cabbage, ground beef, vegetable 
> shortening, black pepper, salt, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, 
> vegetable oil, rice wine vinegar, chicken stock. 
> 
> >What arrived was uncooked biscuit mix with a teaspoon of ground something
> in it. My suggestion would have been to use a homemade, real Chinese mix,
> and to add spices to both the "filling" and the wrapper. Steaming them
> until they were cooked would have helped immensely.



Quite bluntly, nothing in that feast was served uncooked. The buns were
 steamed in an industrial steamer. Maybe they were not up to your standards
but they were thoroughly cooked. Again, you should have asked. 
 
> >The potstickers were ground something as well, placed in an oil-soaked
> but > uncooked wonton wrapper. The total amount of food here was about 
three 
> bites- if it had been edible.... 
> 
Again, you err. No oil was used in the potstickers. That was juice from
 the steaming of the meat and they were quite edible.  I have two bags
 frozen in my freezer and am planning on having them tonight as a matter of
 fact.
> 
> >About an hour's wait, for anything else...

If you are going to critique a feast, at least don't exaggerate.  The entire 
three course feast with desert was on the tables within 1 1/2 hours.  I was 
helping expedite so therefore I was keeping a close eye on the clock. Yes, 
things did come out slower than we intended but we were trying to make 
certain the chicken was served as hot as possible and were
delayed by a burned pot of rice.
> 
> *Steamed Rice 
> Rice, salt, water 
> *Steamed Sesame Spinach 
> Spinach, Sesame seeds, sesame oil 
> 
> >The steamed rice was well done- not burned (hard to do) but there wasn't 
> enough of it, particularly for an intended Chinese meal. 
> See above.
> 
> >The steamed spinach appeared to have been frozen spinach, boiled to
> death, 
> with toasted sesame oil and untoasted sesame seeds in it- the sesame oil
> was 
> far too strong for the spinach as it should have been, and someone had 
> apparently added some sugar or other sweetener. Even the vinegars didn't 
> help..... 

 The spinach was steamed in an industrial steamer not "boiled to death".
 Also please try to make your parts of speech match because it is impossible 
for something to be "far too strong" and then "as it should have been". 
Please try again when you have that thought sorted out.
 
> 
> *Braised pork with 5 fragrant spices 
> Pork shoulder roast, soy sauce, red wine, red wine vinegar, 
> honey, garlic, Szechuan peppercorns, 5-spice powder 
> *Ginger Chicken w/ Noodles and Vegetables 
> Straw mushrooms, wheat noodles, chicken, bamboo shoots, chicken 
> stock, green onions, bok choy cabbage, bean 
> sprouts, vegetable oil, black bean sauce, ginger, white wine 
> 
> >Shortly after the spinach and rice, the braised pork and the stir fry 
> arrived. The pork was served in a dried-out slab, almost tasteless, and 
> indistinguishable from some badly over-cooked fish steaks I had once- 
> halibut, I think. Again, nothing I had helped- Stubby got most of ours. 
> Minimal spicing. 

Again, you are not trying to critique - only insult. And you are wildly wrong 
here. That pork was so tender that when I cut it, it shredded like a good pot 
roast. As for minimal spicing, how come you could smell the pork spices 
throughout the event and clear outside the building? As for your overcooked 
fish, what on earth does that have to do with a legitimate
critique?
 
> >The stir fry was stir boiled, I think- I've had better canned chop suey.
> No 
> rice, of course, to go with it. The error here was probably trying to make
> 
> too big a batch at once and over cooking it. Very bland.

Again, you should have asked. The stir fry was stir-fried! If you did not 
like it, dissect it by how you would improve it not by how clever you think 
you can put it down. 
 
> >The noodles were served seperately, and almost edible, but at that point
> I  had entirely lost my appetite. I think they were boxed fettuchine..... 

 Did you eat them or not?
> 
> *Sweetened fruits 
> Mandarin oranges in light syrup, pears, apples, honey 
> 
> >These were the hit of the feast- someone remembered to bring a can 
> opener.... 

 Again, you faltered.  I don't know about you but I most certainly can tell
 canned fruit from fresh and as I sat beside several people cutting and
 peeling for most of the morning, I can state that you owe someone an
 apology for that remark.
 
> >All in all, a truly miserable meal. 
> A matter of opinion.
> >I went out afterwards to the car, and got some of our lunch munchies
> (beef sausage spring roll, egg salad sandwiches, veggies with my favorite
> home-made dip) and ate, and envied the 
> folks who took advantage of the garb discount at Ponderosa..... 
> 
> >I think that if you're going to make a meal such as this necessary to
> learn 
> the cooking techniques of that culture, and have people trained in using 
> them doing the cooking. 

 Again, as you weren't in the kitchen...

> >Most of this feast was just simply, badly cooked. 

 A matter of opinion.

> >As an example, 4 people working on woks could have made the stir boil
> come out as a stir fry, if they'd worked at it right, and had everyone
> served in about 15 minutes. Same with the steamed buns and the
> potstickers.

 Phlip, again, you were not in the kitchen. This is supposition and something 
that you will not really know until someone has authorized you to do an 
actual feast for a large number of people. 

> >Chinese cookery for a large group is very labor intensive, as Adamantius
> said when > we were discussing this , and my experience has told me that 
you keep the 
> pans hot, pre-prep all the foods, and move fast. 

 I would ask Adamantius before you use his name to justify a critique of this 
type. If you will remember, this is exactly the sort of critique that caused 
such problems last year.
 
> >Comments from others when I mentioned how bad it was, included telling me
> 
> war stories from early SCA feasts, where 205 out of 230 people eating had 
> gotten food poisoning, and badly burned whatevers- the nicest thing I
> heard 
> from anyone was that this feast was pretty bland. 

Phlip, as these are the same people who never seem to like anybody's feasts, 
please, and I mean please, try asking a larger group of people what they 
think. And again, why would comments of this type matter?
> 
> >Any other comments?
 
You Bet!  Once again, Phlip, you have not bothered to take into account the 
feelings and reputations of several cooks that I hold dear before spouting 
off a half-cooked critique full of far more venom than temperance. As I have 
stressed to all when I judge A&S and when I critique feasts, you always say 
what went right first. Then, you say how you would
 have done things better. Never use inflammatory language or phrases and 
never use terms that can be taken in ways you do not intend.  From the title 
of your e-mail to the appeal to others to justify this "critique", you have 
failed on all accounts. Not only do you owe these cooks an apology, but you 
also owe them a re-written, concise and fair critique posted on the same 
boards where you have posted your previous missives.

 Master LLEW
 Mike Hobbs
 Relationship Manager
 Paymentech, Inc.
 (800) 284-3664, ext 3816